Chapter XI: Part 11

As he grew richer he felt the responsibility of his wealth. He gave generously to the country during the Civil War; he contributed largely to the establishment of the Norwich Free Academy and to the Congregational Church in Norwich with which he was connected, and to other worthy objects.

He determined to do good with his money while he lived. After the war, having given largely for the relief of the freedmen, he decided to give to a board of trustees $1,000,000, for the purpose of "uplifting the lately emancipated population of the Southern States and their posterity by conferring on them the blessings of Christian education."

When asked the precise meaning of the phrase "Christian education," he replied, "that in the sense which he intended, the common school teaching of Massachusetts and Connecticut was Christian education. That it is leavened with a predominant and salutary Christian influence."

He said in his letter to the trustees, "It has pleased God to grant me prosperity in my business, and to put it into my power to apply to charitable uses a sum of money so considerable as to require the counsel of wise men for the administration of it." In committing the money to their hands he "humbly hoped that the administration of it might be so guided by divine wisdom as to be, in its turn, an encouragement to philanthropic enterprise on the part of others, and an enduring means of good to our beloved country and to our fellow-men."

Mr. Slater's gift awakened widespread interest and appreciation. The Congress of the United States voted him thanks, and caused a gold medal to be struck in his honor.

Mr. Slater lived to see his work well begun, intrusted to such men as ex-President Hayes at the head of the trust, Phillips Brooks, Governor Colquitt of Georgia, his son William A. Slater, and others. He died May 7, 1884, at Norwich, at the age of sixty-nine.

The general agent of the trust for several years was the late Dr. A. G. Haygood of Georgia, who resigned when he was made a bishop in the Methodist Church. Since 1891 Dr. J. L. M. Curry of Washington, D.C., chairman of the Educational Committee, and author of "The Southern States of the American Union" and other works, has been the able agent of the Slater as well as Peabody Funds. Dr. Curry, member of both National and Confederate Congresses, and minister to Spain for three years, has been devoted to education all his life, and gives untiring industry and deep interest to his work.

The Slater Fund is used in normal schools to fit students for teaching and for industrial education, and much of it is paid in salaries to teachers.

Dr. Curry, in his Report for 1892-1893, gives a list of the schools aided in that year, all of which he visited during the year. To Bishop College, Marshall, Tex., with 248 colored students, $1,000 was given for normal work and manual training; to Central Tennessee College, Nashville, with 493 students, $2,000, to pay the teachers in the mechanical shop, carpentry, sewing, cooking, etc.; to Clark University, Atlanta, Ga., 415 students, $2,500, mostly to the mechanical department, etc.; to Spelman Female Institute, Atlanta, with 744 pupils, $5,000; the institute has nine buildings, with property valued at $200,000.

To Claflin University, Orangeburg, S.C., with 635 students, both men and women, $3,096, chiefly to the industrial department,--iron-working, harness-making, masonry, painting, etc.; to Hampton Normal Institute, Hampton, Va., the noble institution to which General S. C. Armstrong gave his life, $5,000, for training girls in housework, to the machine-shop, for teachers in natural history, mathematics, etc. There are nearly 800 pupils in the school.

To the Leonard Medical School, Shaw University, Raleigh, N.C., $1,000. The medical faculty are all white men. To the university itself, with 462 pupils, $2,500; to the Meharry Medical College, Nashville, 117 men and four women, $1,500; to the State Normal School, Montgomery, Ala., with 900 students, $2,500; to the Normal and Industrial Institute, Tuskegee, Ala., with 400 men and 320 women, $2,100, given largely to the departments of agriculture, leather and tin, brick-making, saw-mill work, plastering, dressmaking, etc. "This institution is an achievement of Mr. Booker T. Washington, a graduate of Hampton Normal Institute," says the Report of the Commissioner of Education, 1891-1892. "Opened in 1881 with one teacher and thirty pupils, it attained such success that in 1892 there were 44 officers and teachers and over 600 students. It also owns property estimated at $150,000, upon which there is no encumbrance. General S. C. Armstrong said of it, 'I think it is the noblest and grandest work of any colored man in the land.'"

To Straight University, New Orleans, La., with 600 pupils, the Slater Fund gave $2,000. The late Thomas Lafon, a colored man, left at death $5,800 to this excellent institution; to Talladega College, Talladega, Ala., with 519 students, $2,500; to Tougaloo University, Tougaloo, Miss., with 392 students, $3,000. This institute, under the charge of the American Missionary Association, began twenty-five years ago with one small building surrounded by negro cabins. Now there are ten buildings in the midst of five hundred acres. Most of these institutions for colored people have small libraries, which would be greatly helped by the gift of good books.

In nine years, from 1883 to 1892, nearly $400,000 was given from the Slater Fund to push forward the education of the colored people. Most of them were poor and left in ignorance through slavery; but they have made rapid progress, and have shown themselves worthy of aid. The _American Missionary_, June, 1883, tells of a law-student at Shaw University who helped to support his widowed mother, taught a school of 80 scholars four miles in the country, walking both ways, studying law and reciting at night nearly a mile away from his home. When admitted to the bar, he sustained the best examination in a class of 30, all the others white.

The _Howard Quarterly_, January, 1893, cites the case of a young woman who prepared for college at Howard University. She led the entire entrance class at the Chicago University, and received a very substantial reward in a scholarship that will pay all expenses of the four years' course.

Mr. La Port, the superintendent of construction of the George R. Smith College, Sedalia, Mo., was born a slave; he ran away at twelve, worked fourteen years to obtain money enough to secure his freedom, is now worth $75,000, and supports his aged mother and the widow of the man from whom he purchased his freedom.

The highest honor at Boston University in 1892 was awarded to a colored man, Thomas Nelson Baker, born a slave in Virginia in 1860. The class orator at Harvard College in 1890 was a colored man, Clement Garnett Morgan.

DANIEL HAND

Was born in Madison, Conn., July 16, 1801. He was descended from good Puritan ancestors, who came to this country in 1635 from Maidstone, Kent, England. His grandfather on his father's side served in the War of the Revolution, and his ancestors on his mother's side both in the old French War and the Revolutionary War.

Daniel, one of seven boys, lived on a farm till he was about sixteen years of age, when he went to Augusta, Ga., in 1818, with an uncle, Daniel Meigs, a merchant of that place and of Savannah. Young Hand proved most useful in his uncle's business; in time succeeded him, and became one of the leading merchants of the South. Some fifteen years before the war Mr. Hand took into business partnership in Augusta Mr. George W. Williams, a native of Georgia, who later established a business in Charleston, S.C., Mr. Hand furnishing the larger part of the capital. The business in Augusta was given in charge to a nephew, and Mr. Hand temporarily removed to New York City.

When the Civil War became imminent, Mr. Hand went South, was arrested as a "Lincoln spy" in New Orleans; but no basis being found for the charge, was released on parole that he would report to the Confederate authority at Richmond. On his way thither, passing the night in Augusta, he would have been mobbed by a lawless crowd who gathered about his hotel, had not a few of the leading men of Atlanta hurried him off to jail in a carriage with the mayor and a few friends as a guard.

Reporting at Richmond, Mr. Hand was allowed to go where he chose, if within the limits of the Confederacy, and chose Asheville, N.C., for his home until the war ended, spending his time in reading, of which he was very fond, and then came North.

The Confederate Courts at Charleston tried to confiscate his property, but this was prevented largely through the influence of Mr. Williams. Some years later, when the latter became involved, and creditors were pressing for payment, Mr. Hand, the largest creditor, refused to secure his claim, saying, "If Mr. Williams lives, he will pay his debts. I am not at all concerned about it." The money was paid by Mr. Williams at his own convenience after several years.

Mr. Hand had married early in life his cousin, Elizabeth Ward, daughter of Dr. Levi Ward of Rochester, N.Y., who died early, as well as their young children. Mr. Hand remained a widower for more than fifty years.

Bereft of wife and children, fond of the Southern people, yet heartily opposed to slavery, and realizing the helplessness and ignorance of the slaves, Mr. Hand decided to give to the American Missionary Association $1,000,894.25, the income to be used "for the purpose of educating needy and indigent colored people of African descent, residing, or who may hereafter reside, in the recent slave States of the United States of America.... I would limit," he said, "the sum of $100 as the largest sum to be expended for any one person in any one year from this fund." The fund, transferred Oct. 22, 1888, was to be known as the "Daniel Hand Educational Fund for Colored People."

Upon Mr. Hand's death, at Guilford, Conn., Dec. 17, 1891, in the family of one of his nieces, it was found that he had made the American Missionary Association his residuary legatee. About $500,000 passed into the possession of the Association, to be used for the same purpose as the million dollars; and about $200,000, it is believed, will eventually go to the organization after life-use by others.

The American Missionary Association is a noble society, organized in 1846 and chartered in 1862, for helping the poor and neglected races at our own doors, by establishing churches and schools in the South among both negroes and whites, in the West among the Indians, and in the Pacific States among the Chinese.

The Rev. Dr. A. D. Mayo says, in his book on the Southern women in the recent educational movement in the South, "Perhaps the most notable success in the secondary, normal, and higher training of colored youth has been achieved by the American Missionary Association.... At present its labors in the South are largely directed to training superior colored youth of both sexes for the work of teaching in the new public schools. It now supports six institutions called colleges and universities, in which not only the ordinary English branches are taught, but opportunity is offered for the few who desire a moderate college course." Fisk University of Nashville, which has sent out over 12,000 students, is one of the most interesting.

The American Missionary Association assists 74 schools for colored people with 12,000 pupils, 198 churches for the same with over 10,000 members and a much larger number in the Sunday-schools; 14 churches among the Indians with over 900 members; 20 schools among the Chinese at the West with over 1,000 pupils and over 300 Christian Chinese.

Mr. Hand's noble gift aids about fifty schools in the various Southern States from its income of over $50,000 yearly.

Mr. Hand was a man of fine personal presence, of extensive reading, and wide observation. He gave, says his relative, Mr. George A. Wilcox, "for the well-being of many, both within and without the family connection, who have come within the province of deserved assistance; befriending those who try to help themselves, whether successfully or not, but unalterably stern in his disfavor when idleness or dissipation lead to want." He gave the academy bearing his name to his native town of Madison, Conn. He joined the First Presbyterian Church in Augusta, Ga., when he was twenty-eight years of age, and was for thirty years its efficient Sunday-school superintendent. He organized a teachers' meeting, held every Saturday evening, which proved of great benefit.

He always loved the Scriptures. He said one day to a friend, as he laid his hand on his well-worn Bible, "I always read from that book every morning, and have done so from my boyhood, except in a comparatively few cases of unusual interruption or special hindrance."

He was often heard to say, "I have now a very short time for this world, but I take no concern about that; no matter where or when I die, I hope I am ready to go when called."

The temperance work needs another Daniel Hand to furnish a million dollars for its labors among the colored men of the South, where, says the thirtieth annual report of the National Temperance Society, "the saloon is everywhere working their ruin. It destroys their manhood, despoils their homes, impoverishes their families, defrauds their wives and children, and debauches the whole community."

The National Temperance Society, whose efficient and lamented Secretary, John N. Stearns, died April 21, 1895, was organized in 1865. It has printed and scattered over 900,000,000 pages of total-abstinence literature. With its board of thirty managers representing nearly all denominations and temperance organizations, ever on the alert to assist in making and enforcing helpful laws and to lessen the power of the liquor traffic, it is doing its work all over the nation. Says one who has long been identified with this organization, "I believe there is no Missionary Society, either Home or Foreign, that is doing more for the cause of Christ than this society, especially in saving the boys and girls; and yet, so far as I know, it receives less donations than any other society, and very rarely a legacy." Mr. William E. Dodge, the well-known merchant of New York, left the Society, by will, $5,000. Mr. W. B. Spooner of Boston, and Mr. James H. Kellogg of Rochester, N.Y., each left $5,000.

It is a hopeful sign of the times when laws are passed in thirty-nine States and all the Territories requiring the teaching of the nature and effects of alcoholic drinks upon the human system. It is encouraging when a million members of Christian Endeavor societies pledge themselves "to seek the overthrow of this evil at all times in every lawful way." Our country has given grandly for education; it will in the future give more generously to reforms which help to do away with poverty and crime.

GEORGE T. ANGELL.

George T. Angell, the president and founder of "The American Humane Education Society," and president and one of the founders of "The Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals," deserves, with the late lamented Henry Bergh of New York, the thanks of the nation for their noble work in teaching kindness to dumb creatures, and preventing cruelty. No charity can lie nearer to my own heart than the societies for the prevention of cruelty to animals.

Mr. Angell, now seventy-three years of age,--he was born at Southbridge, Mass., June 5, 1823,--the son of a minister, a graduate of Dartmouth College, a successful lawyer, gave up his practice of seventeen years, in 1868, to devote himself and his means, without pay, to humane work all over the world. He has enlisted the highest and the lowest in behalf of dumb animals. He has spoken before schools and conventions, before legislatures and churches, before kings and in prisons, in behalf of those who must patiently submit to wrong, and have no voice to plead for themselves.

Mr. Angell helped to establish the first "American Band of Mercy;" and now there are nearly 25,000 bands, with a membership of between one and two million persons, all pledged "to try to be kind to all living creatures, and try to protect them from cruel usage."

He has helped to scatter more than two million copies, in nearly all European and some Asiatic languages, of Anna Sewell's charming autobiography of an English horse, "Black Beauty," telling both of kind and cruel masters. Ten thousand copies have recently been printed for circulation in the schools of Italy.

A thousand cruel fashions, such as that of docking horses, or killing for mere sport, will be done away when men and women have given these subjects more careful thought.

"Evil is wrought by want of thought
As well as want of heart,"

wrote Thomas Hood in "The Lady's Dream."

"Our Dumb Animals," published in Boston, of which Mr. Angell is the editor, and which should be in every home and school in the land, has a circulation of about 50,000 to 60,000 a month, and is sent to the editors of 20,000 American publications. Over one hundred and seventeen million pages of humane literature are printed in a single year by the American Humane Education Society and the Massachusetts S. P. C. A.; the latter society has convicted about 5,000 persons in the last few years of overloading horses, beating dogs or inciting them to fight, starving animals, or other forms of cruelty.

In most large cities drinking fountains have been provided for man and beast; transportation and slaughter of animals have been rendered more humane; children have been taught kindness to the weakest and smallest of God's creatures; to feel with Cowper,--

"I would not enter on my list of friends
(Though graced with polished manners and fine sense,
Yet wanting sensibility) the man
Who needlessly sets foot upon a worm."

Some persons are following the example of Baroness Burdett-Coutts in London, who has provided a home for lost dogs, where they are kept till their owners call for them, or are given away to those who know that to have a pet in the home is a sure way to make people more tender and more noble in character. Such a place is found on Lake Street, Brighton, Mass., in the Ellen M. Gifford Sheltering Home for Animals, where each year several hundred dogs and cats are received, and homes found for them. There is a large playground for the dogs, and greater space for the cats. It is stated in the Report that the Boston police "have always generously and humanely aided the work of the Shelter." The objects of the "Sheltering Home" are:--

"First, to aid and succor the waifs and strays of the city.

"Second, to alleviate the sufferings of sick, abused, and homeless animals.

"Third, to find good homes for all those who come to the Shelter, as far as possible.

"Fourth, to spread the gospel of humanity towards dumb creatures by practical example."

It would be difficult to find in history a truly great person, like Wellington, Abraham Lincoln, Dr. Samuel Johnson, or Sir Walter Scott, who has not been a lover of dogs or birds or cats. Frederick the Great when dying asked an attendant to cover one of his dogs which seemed to be shivering with the cold.

"Our Dumb Animals" for May, 1896, gives the names of more than a hundred persons who have left legacies in the last few years to the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Every State and city needs more of these generous givers. A letter lies before me from Mr. E. C. Parmelee, the general agent of the society in Cleveland, Ohio, which says, "I regret to say that we have no dog shelter.... We should very much like to have one, and a hospital for broken-down and neglected horses.... We have very much hoped that we should have a bequest at no very distant day sufficiently large to build such a block as we need, with dormitories for children who are picked up in the night, and with an apartment for keeping our horse-ambulance, with a pair of horses and driver always at command, to remove such horses as are disabled, and fall in the streets from various causes."

Every society needs more agents to watch carefully the dumb creatures who carry heavy loads, or are neglected or ill treated; and the gospel of kindness to animals needs to be carried to every part of the earth.

WILLIAM W. CORCORAN

AND HIS ART GALLERY.

William Wilson Corcoran was born Dec. 27, 1798, at Georgetown, D.C. He was the son of Thomas Corcoran, who settled in Georgetown when a youth, and became one of its leading citizens. He was mayor, postmaster, and one of the founders of the Columbian College, of which institution he was an active trustee while he lived. He was also one of the principal founders of two Episcopal churches in Georgetown, St. John's and Christ's Church, and was always a vestryman in one or the other.

His son William, after a good preparatory education, spent a year at the Georgetown College, and a year at the school of the Rev. Addison Belt, a graduate of Princeton. His father desired that he should complete his college course; but William was eager to enter upon a business life, and when he was seventeen went into the dry-goods store of his brothers, James and Thomas Corcoran. Two years later they established him in business under the firm name of W. W. Corcoran & Co. The firm prospered so well that the wholesale auction and commission business was begun in 1819.

For four years the firm made money; but in the spring of 1823, they, with many other merchants in Georgetown and Baltimore, failed, and were obliged to settle with their creditors for fifty cents on the dollar.

Young Corcoran, then twenty-five years of age, devoted himself to caring for the property of his father, who was growing old. The father died Jan. 27, 1830. Five years later, in 1835, Mr. Corcoran married Louise A. Morris, who lived but five years after their marriage, dying Nov. 21, 1840, leaving a son and daughter. The son died soon after the death of his mother; the daughter grew to womanhood, and became a great joy to her father. She married the Hon. George Eustis, a member of Congress from Louisiana, and died in early life at Cannes, France, 1867, leaving three small children.

Mr. Corcoran long before this had become a very successful banker. Two years after his marriage, in 1837, he moved his family to Washington, and began the brokerage business in a small store, ten by sixteen feet, on Pennsylvania Avenue near Fifteenth Street. After three years he took into partnership Mr. George W. Riggs, the son of a wealthy man from Maryland, under the firm name of Corcoran & Riggs.

In 1845 they purchased the old United States Bank building, corner of Fifteenth Street and New York Avenue; and two years later Mr. Corcoran settled with his creditors of 1823, paying principal and interest, about $46,000. During the Mexican war the firm made extensive loans to the government, which conservative bankers regarded as a hazardous investment. Mr. Riggs retired from the firm July 1, 1848; and his younger brother, Elisha, was made a junior partner.

"In August, 1848, having about twelve millions of the six-per-cent loan of 1848 on hand, and the demand for it falling off in this country, and the stock being one per cent below the price at which Corcoran & Riggs took it, Mr. Corcoran determined to try the European markets; and, after one day's reflection, embarked for London, where, on arrival, he was told by Mr. Bates, of the house of Baring Bros. & Co., and Mr. George Peabody, that no sale could be made of the stock, and no money could be raised by hypothecation thereof, and they regretted that he had not written to them to inquire before coming over. He replied that he was perfectly satisfied that such would be their views, and therefore came, confident that he could convince them of the expediency of taking an interest in the securities; and that the very fact that London bankers had taken them would make it successful.

"Ten days after his first interview with them, Mr. Thomas Baring returned from the Continent, and with him he was more successful. A sale of five millions at about cost (one hundred and one here) was made to six of the most eminent and wealthy houses in London, viz., Baring Bros. & Co., George Peabody, Overend, Gurney & Co., Dennison & Co., Samuel Jones Lloyd, and James Morrison.

"This was the first sale of American securities made in Europe since 1837; and on his return to New York he was greeted by every one with marked expressions of satisfaction, his success being a great relief to the money market by securing that amount of exchange in favor of the United States. On his success being announced, the stock gradually advanced until it reached one hundred and nineteen and one-half, thus securing by his prompt and successful action a handsome profit which would otherwise have resulted in a serious loss."

On April 1, 1854, Mr. Corcoran withdrew from the banking-firm, and devoted himself to the management of his property and to his benevolent projects.

In 1859 he began, at the northeast corner of Pennsylvania Avenue and Seventeenth Street, a building for the encouragement of the Fine Arts. The structure was used during the Civil War for military purposes. In 1869 Mr. Corcoran deeded this property to trustees. "I shall ask you to receive," he wrote the trustees, "as a nucleus, my own gallery of art, which has been collected at no inconsiderable pains; and I have assurances from friends in other cities, whose tastes and liberality have taken this direction, that they will contribute fine works of art from their respective collections.... I venture to hope that with your kind co-operation and judicious management we shall have provided, at no distant day, not only a pure and refined pleasure for residents and visitors of the national metropolis, but have accomplished something useful in the development of American genius."

In 1869 Mr. Corcoran also deeded to trustees the Louise Home, erected in memory of his wife and daughter, as a home for refined and educated gentlewomen who had "become reduced by misfortune."

The deed specified that "there shall be no discrimination or distinction on account of religious creed or sectarian opinions, in respect to the trustees, directresses, officers, or inmates of the said establishment; but all proper facilities that may be possible in the judgment of the trustees shall be allowed and furnished to the inmates for the worship of Almighty God, according to each one's conscientious belief."

The building and grounds of the Louise Home in 1869 were estimated at $200,000, and are now worth probably over $500,000. The endowment consisted of an invested fund of $325,000.

Mr. Corcoran gave generously as long as he lived, having decided early in life that "at least one-half of his moneyed accumulations should be held for the welfare of men."

In Oak Hill Cemetery he erected a beautiful monument to the memory of John Howard Payne, author of "Home, Sweet Home." It is a shaft of Carrara marble, surmounted by a bust one and one-half times the size of the average man.

In his old age he purchased the Patapsco Institute at Ellicott's Mills, and gave the title-deeds to the two grand-nieces of John Randolph of Roanoke, who were in reduced circumstances, that they might open a school.

He gave to Columbian University, it is stated, houses and lands and money, amounting to a quarter of a million dollars. The University of Virginia, the Ascension Church, and other colleges and churches, were enriched through his generosity.

Mr. Corcoran died in Washington, Feb. 24, 1888, at the age of ninety years. He had given away over five million dollars.

"The treasures of the Corcoran Art Gallery," said its president in laying the corner-stone of a new building two years ago, "represent a money cost of $346,938 (exclusive of donations), a cost value which, of course, is greatly below the real value which these treasures represent to-day. The total value of the gallery, in its treasures, its endowments, and its buildings, is estimated to-day at $1,926,938. The total number of visitors who have inspected the paintings and sculpture exhibited in the gallery from the date of its opening down to the beginning of this month [May, 1896] was 1,696,489."

JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER

AND CHICAGO UNIVERSITY.

From our windows we look out upon a forest of beautiful beech-trees, great oaks, and maples. There are well-kept drives, cool ravines with tasteful walks, a pretty lake and boat-house, and great stretches of lawn, in the four hundred or more acres, such as one sees in England. The gravelled roadways are appropriately named. "Blithedale" leads into a charming valley, through which a brook winds in and out, under a dozen bridges. The "Maze" leads through clusters of beeches and other undergrowth, and opens upon a magnificent view of blue Lake Erie at the right and the busy city at the left. In the distance, on a hilltop, stands a large white frame house, with red roof. Vines clamber over the broad double porches, red trumpet-creepers twine and blossom about some of the big oaks, beds of roses send out their fragrance, and the place looks most attractive and restful.

It is "Forest Hill," at Cleveland, Ohio, the summer home of Mr. John D. Rockefeller, probably the greatest giver in America. Our largest giver heretofore, so far as known, was George Peabody, who gave at his death $9,000,000. Mr. Rockefeller has given about $7,500,000 to one institution, besides several hundred thousand dollars each year for the past twenty-five years to various charities.

Mr. Rockefeller comes from very honorable ancestry. The Rockefellers were an old French family in Normandy, who moved to Holland, and came to America about 1650, settling in New Jersey. Nearly a century ago, in 1803, Mr. Rockefeller's grandfather, Godfrey, married Lucy, one of the Averys of Groton, Conn., a family distinguished in the Revolutionary War, and which has since furnished to our country many able men and women.

The picturesque home of the Averys, built in 1656, in the town of New London (now Groton), by Captain James Avery, was occupied by his descendants until it was destroyed by fire in 1894. A monument has been erected upon the site, with a bronze tablet containing a _fac-simile_ of the old home.

The youngest son of Captain James Avery was Samuel, whose fine face looks out from the pages of the interesting Avery Genealogy, which Homer D. L. Sweet, of Syracuse, spent thirty years in writing. Samuel, an able and public-spirited man, married, in 1686, in Swanzey, Mass., Susannah Palmes, a direct descendant, through thirty-four generations, of Egbert, the first king of England. The name has always been retained in the family, Lucy Avery Rockefeller naming her youngest son Egbert. Her eldest son, William Avery, married Eliza Davison; and of their six children, John Davison Rockefeller is the second child and eldest son.

He was born in Richford, Tioga County, N.Y., July 8, 1839. His father, William Avery, was a physician and business man as well. With great energy he cleared the forest, built a sawmill, loaned his money, and, like his noted son, knew how to overcome obstacles.

The mother, Eliza Davison, was a woman of rare common sense and executive ability. Self-poised in manner, charitable, persevering in whatever she attempted, she gave careful attention to the needs of her family, but did not forget that she had Christian duties outside her home. The devotion of Mr. Rockefeller to his mother as long as she lived was marked, and worthy of example.

The Rockefeller home in Richford was one of mutual work and helpfulness. The eldest child, Lucy, now dead, was less than two years older than John; the third child, William, about two years younger; Mary, Franklin and Frances, twins, each about two years younger than the others; the last named died early. All were taught the value of labor and of economy.

The eldest son, John, early took responsibility upon himself. Willing and glad to work, he cared for the garden, milked the cows, and acquired the valuable habit of never wasting his time. When about nine years old he raised and sold turkeys, and instead of spending the money, probably his first earnings, saved it, and loaned it at seven per cent. It would be interesting to know if the lad ever dreamed then of being perhaps the richest man in America?

In 1853 the Rockefeller family moved to Cleveland, Ohio; and John, then fourteen years of age, entered the high school. He was a studious boy, especially fond of mathematics and of music, and learned to play on the piano; he was retiring in manner, and exemplary in conduct. When between fourteen and fifteen years of age, he joined the Erie Street Baptist Church of Cleveland, Ohio, now known as the Euclid Avenue Baptist Church, where he has been from that time an earnest and most helpful worker in it. The boy of fifteen did not confine his work in the church to prayer-meetings and Sunday-school. There was a church debt, and it had to be paid. He began to solicit money, standing in the church-door as the people went out, ready to receive what each was willing to contribute. He gave also of his own as much as was possible; thus learning early in life, not only to be generous, but to incite others to generosity.

When about eighteen or nineteen, he was made one of the Board of Trustees of the church, which position he held till his absence from the city in the past few years prevented his serving. He has been the superintendent of the Sunday-school of the Euclid Avenue Baptist Church for about thirty years. When he had held the office for twenty-five years the Sunday-school celebrated the event by a reception for their leader. After addresses and music, each one of the five hundred or more persons present shook hands with Mr. Rockefeller, and laid a flower on the table beside him. From the first he has won the love of the children from his sympathy, kindness, and his interest in their welfare. No picnic even would be satisfactory to them without his presence.

After two years passed in the Cleveland High School, the school-year ending June, 1855, young Rockefeller took a summer course in the Commercial College, and at sixteen was ready to see what obstacles the business world presented to a boy. He found plenty of them. It was the old story of every place seeming to be full; but he would not allow himself to be discouraged by continued refusals. He visited manufacturing establishments, stores, and shops, again and again, determined to find a position.

He succeeded on the twenty-sixth day of September, 1855, and became assistant bookkeeper in the forwarding and commission house of Hewitt & Tuttle. He did not know what pay he was to receive; but he knew he had taken the first step towards success,--he had obtained work. At the end of the year, for the three months, October, November, and December, he received fifty dollars,--not quite four dollars a week.

The next year he was paid twenty-five dollars a month, or three hundred dollars a year, and at the end of fifteen months, took the vacant position with the same firm, at five hundred dollars, as cashier and bookkeeper, of a man who had been receiving a salary of two thousand dollars.

Desirous of earning more, young Rockefeller after a time asked for eight hundred dollars as wages; and, the firm declining to give over seven hundred dollars a year, the enterprising youth, not yet nineteen, decided to start in business for himself. He had industry and energy; he was saving of both time and money; he had faith in his ability to succeed, and the courage to try. He had managed to save about a thousand dollars; and his father loaned him another thousand, on which he paid ten per cent interest, receiving the principal as a gift when he became twenty-one years of age. This certainly was a modest beginning for one of the founders of the Standard Oil Company.

Having formed a partnership with Morris B. Clark, in 1858, in produce commission and forwarding, the firm name became Clark & Rockefeller. The closest attention was given to business. Mr. Rockefeller lived within his means, and worked early and late, finding little or no time for recreation or amusements, but always time for his accustomed work in the church. There was always some person in sickness or sorrow to be visited, some child to be brought into the Sunday-school, or some stranger to be invited to the prayer-meetings.

The firm succeeded in business, and was continued with various partners for seven years, until the spring of 1865. During this time some parts of the country, especially Pennsylvania and Ohio, had become enthusiastic over the finding of large quantities of oil through drilling wells. _The Petroleum Age_ for December, 1881, gives a most interesting account of the first oil-well in this country, drilled at Titusville, on Oil Creek, a branch of the Alleghany River, in August, 1859.

Petroleum had long been known, both in Europe and America, under various names. The Indians used it as a medicine, mixed it with paint to anoint themselves for war, or set fire at night to the oil that floated upon the surface of their creeks, making the illumination a part of their religious ceremonies. In Ohio, in 1819, when, in boring for salt, springs of petroleum were found, Professor Hildreth of Marietta wrote that the oil was used in lamps in workshops, and believed it would be "a valuable article for lighting the street-lamps in the future cities of Ohio." But forty years went by before the first oil-well was drilled, when men became almost as excited as in the rush to California for gold in 1849.

Several refineries were started in Cleveland to prepare the crude oil for illuminating purposes. Mr. Rockefeller, the young commission merchant, like his father a keen observer of men and things, as early as 1860, the year after the first well was drilled, helped to establish an oil-refining business under the firm name of Andrews, Clark, & Co.

The business increased so rapidly that Mr. Rockefeller sold his interest in the commission house in 1865, and with Mr. Samuel Andrews bought out their associates in the refining business, and established the firm of Rockefeller & Andrews, the latter having charge of the practical details.

Mr. Rockefeller was then less than twenty-six years old; but an exceptional opportunity had presented itself, and a young man of exceptional ability was ready for the opportunity. A good and cheap illuminator was a world-wide necessity; and it required brain, and system, and rare business ability to produce the best product, and send it to all nations.

The brother of Mr. Rockefeller, William, entered into the partnership; and a new firm was established, under the name of William Rockefeller & Co. The necessity of a business house in New York for the sale of their products soon became apparent, and all parties were united in the firm of Rockefeller & Co.

In 1867 Mr. Henry M. Flagler, well known in connection with his improvements in St. Augustine, Fla., was taken into the company, which became Rockefeller, Andrews, & Flagler. Three years later, in 1870, the Standard Oil Company of Ohio was established with a capital of $1,000,000, Mr. Rockefeller being made president. He was also made president of the National Refiners' Association.

He was now thirty-one years old, far-seeing, self-centred, quiet and calm in manner, but untiring in work, and comprehensive in his grasp of business. The determination which had won a position for him in youth, even though it brought him but four dollars a week, the confidence in his ability, integrity, and sound judgment, which made the banks willing to lend him money, or men willing to invest their capital in his enterprise, made him a power in the business world thus early in life.

Amid all his business and his church work, he had found time to form another partnership, the wisest and best of all. In the same high school with him for two years was a young girl near his own age, Laura C. Spelman, a bright scholar, refined and sensible.

Her father was a merchant, a Representative in the Legislature of Ohio, an earnest helper in the church, in temperance, and in all that lifts the world upward. He was the friend of the slave; and the Spelman home was one of the restful stations on that "underground railroad" to which so many colored men and women owe their freedom. He was an active member for years of Plymouth Congregational Church in Cleveland, and later of Dr. Buddington's church in Brooklyn, and of the Broadway Tabernacle, New York, under Dr. Wm. M. Taylor. He died in New York City, Oct. 10, 1881.

Mrs. Spelman, the mother, was also a devoted Christian. She now lives, at the age of eighty-six, with her daughter, grateful, as she says, for life's beautiful sunset. She is loved by everybody, and her sweet face and voice would be sadly missed. She retains all her faculties, and has as deep an interest as ever in all religious, philanthropic, and political affairs.

The Spelman ancestors are English. Sir Henry Spelman, knighted by King James I., died in 1641, and lies buried in Westminster Abbey. Henry S., the third son of Sir Henry, and first of the name in America, came to Jamestown, Va., in 1609, and was killed by the Indians. Richard Spelman, born in Danbury, England, in 1665, came to Middletown, Conn., in 1700, and died in 1750. Laura's grandfather, Samuel, was the fourth in line from Richard. He was one of the pioneers in Ohio, moving thither from Granville, Mass. Her father, Harvey B. Spelman, was born in a log cabin in Rootstown, Ohio. Her mother's family came also from Massachusetts, from the town of Blanford; and her father and mother met and were married in Ohio.

Laura Spelman was a member of the first graduating class of the Cleveland High School, and has always retained the deepest interest in her classmates. After graduating, and spending some time in a boarding-school at the East, she taught very successfully for five years in the Cleveland public schools, being assistant in one of the large grammar schools.

At the age of twenty-five Mr. Rockefeller married Miss Spelman, Sept. 8, 1864. Disliking display or extravagance, fond of books, a wise adviser in her home, a leader for many years of the infant department in the Sunday-school, like her father a worker for temperance and in all philanthropic movements, Mrs. Rockefeller has been an example to the rich, and a friend and helper to the poor. Comparatively few men and women can be intrusted with millions, and make the best use of the money. With Mr. Rockefeller's married life thus happily and wisely begun, business activities went on as before, perchance with less wear of body and mind. It was, of course, impossible to organize and carry forward a great business without anxiety and care.

In Cleave's "Biographical Cyclopædia of Cuyahoga County," it is stated that, in 1872, two years after the organization of the Standard Oil Company, "nearly the entire refining interest of Cleveland, and other interests in New York and the oil-regions, were combined in this company [the Standard Oil], the capital stock of which was raised to two and a half millions, and its business reached in one year over twenty-five million dollars,--the largest company of the kind in the world. The New York establishment was enlarged in its refining departments; large tracts of land were purchased, and fine warehouses erected for the storage of petroleum; a considerable number of iron cars were procured, and the business of transporting oil entered upon; interests were purchased in oil-pipes in the producing regions.

"Works were erected for the manufacture of barrels, paints, and glue, and everything used in the manufacture or shipment of oil. The works had a capacity of distilling twenty-nine thousand barrels of crude oil per day, and from thirty-five hundred to four thousand men were employed in the various departments. The cooperage factory, the largest in the world, turned out nine thousand barrels a day, which consumed over two hundred thousand staves and headings, the product of from fifteen to twenty acres of selected oak."

Ten years after this time, in 1882, the Standard Oil Trust was formed, with a capital of $70,000,000, afterwards increased to $95,000,000, which in a few years became possessed of large oil-producing interests, and of the stock of the companies controlling the greater part of the refining of petroleum in this country.

Ten years later, in 1892, the Supreme Court of Ohio having declared the Trust to be illegal, it was dissolved, and the business is now conducted by separate companies. In each of these Mr. Rockefeller is a shareholder.

Mr. Rockefeller has proved himself a remarkable organizer. His associates have been able men; and his vast business has been so systematized, and the leaders of departments held responsible, that it is managed with comparative ease.

The Standard Oil Companies own hundreds of thousands of acres of oil-lands, and wells, refineries, and many thousand miles of pipe-lines throughout the United States. They have business houses in the principal cities of the Old World as well as the New, and carry their oil in their own great oil-steamships abroad as easily as in their pipe-lines to the American seaboard. They control the greater part of the petroleum business of this country, and export much of the oil used abroad. They employ from forty to fifty thousand men in this great industry, many of whom have remained with the companies for twenty or thirty years. It is said that strikes are unknown among them.

When it is stated, as in the last United States Census reports, that the production of crude petroleum in this country is about thirty-five million barrels a year, the capital invested in the production $114,000,000, and the value of the exports of petroleum in various forms amounts to nearly $50,000,000 a year, the vastness of the business is apparent.

With such power in their hands, instead of selling their product at high rates, they have kept oil at such low prices that the poorest all over the world have been enabled to buy and use it.

Mr. Rockefeller has not confined his business interests to the Standard Oil Company. He owns iron-mines and land in various States; he owns a dozen or more immense vessels on the lakes, besides being largely interested in other steamship lines on both the ocean and the great lakes; he has investments in several railroads, and is connected with many other industrial enterprises.

With all these different lines of business, and being necessarily a very busy man, he never seems hurried or worried. His manner is always kindly and considerate. He is a good talker, an equally good listener, and gathers knowledge from every source. Meeting the best educators of the country, coming in contact with leading business and professional men as well, and having travelled abroad and in his own country, Mr. Rockefeller has become a man of wide and varied intelligence. In physique he is of medium height, light hair turning gray, blue eyes, and pleasant face.

He is a lover of trees, never allowing one to be cut down on his grounds unless necessity demands it, fond of flowers, knows the birds by their song or plumage, and never tires of the beauties of nature.

He is as courteous to a servant as to a millionnaire, is social and genial, and enjoys the pleasantry of bright conversation. He has great power of concentration, is very systematic in business and also in his every-day life, allotting certain hours to work, and other hours to exercise, the bicycle being one of his chief out-door pleasures. He is fond of animals, and owns several valuable horses. A great Saint Bernard dog, white and yellow, called "Laddie," was for years the pet of the household and the admiration of friends. When recently killed accidentally by an electric wire, the dog was carefully buried, and the grave covered with myrtle. A pretty stone, a foot and a half high, cut in imitation of the trunk of an oak-tree, at whose base fern-leaves cluster, marks the spot, with the words "Our dog Laddie; died, 1895," carved upon a tiny slab.

It may be comparatively easy to do great deeds, but the little deeds of thoughtfulness and love for the dumb creatures who have loved us show the real beauty and refinement of character.

Mr. Rockefeller belongs to few social organizations, his church work and his home-life sufficing. He is a member of the New England Society, the Union League Club of New York, and of the Empire State Sons of the Revolution, as his ancestors, both on his father's and mother's side, were in the Revolutionary War.

His home is a very happy one. Into it have been born five children,--Bessie, Alice, who died early, Alta, Edith, and John D. Rockefeller, Jr.

Bessie is married to Charles A. Strong, Associate Professor of Psychology in Chicago University, a graduate of both the University of Rochester and Harvard, and has been a student at the Universities of Berlin and Paris. He is a son of the Rev. Dr. Augustus H. Strong, President of Rochester Theological Seminary.

Edith is married to Harold F. McCormick of Chicago, a graduate of Princeton, and son of the late Cyrus H. McCormick, whose invention of the reaper has been a great blessing to the world. Mr. McCormick gave generously of his millions after he had acquired wealth.

John D. Rockefeller, Jr., is at Brown University, and will probably be associated with his father in business, for which he has shown much aptitude.

The children have all been reared with the good sense and Christian teaching that are the foundations of the best homes. They have dressed simply, lived without display, been active in hospital, Sunday-school, and other good works, and found their pleasures in music, in which all the family are especially skilled, and in reading. They enjoy out-door life, skating in winter, and rowing, walking, and riding in the summer; but there is no lavish use of money for their pleasures.

The daughters know how to sew, and have made many garments for poor children. They have been taught the useful things of home-life, and often cook delicacies for the sick. They have found out in their youth that the highest living is not for self. A recent gift from Miss Alta Rockefeller is $1,200 annually to sustain an Italian day-nursery in the eastern part of Cleveland. This summer, 1896, about fifty little people, two years old and upwards, enjoyed a picnic in the grounds of their benefactor. Mrs. Rockefeller's mother and sister, Miss Lucy M. Spelman, a cultivated and philanthropic woman, are the other members of the Rockefeller family.

Besides Mr. Rockefeller's summer home in Cleveland, he has another with about one thousand acres of land at Pocantico Hills, near Tarrytown on the Hudson. The place is picturesque and historic, made doubly interesting through the legends of Washington Irving. From the summit of Kaakoote Mountain the views are of rare beauty. Sleepy Hollow and the grave of Irving are not far distant. The winter home in New York City is a large brick house, with brown-stone front, near Fifth Avenue, furnished richly but not showily, containing some choice paintings and a fine library.

Mr. Rockefeller will be long remembered as a remarkable financier and the founder of a great organization, but he will be remembered longest and honored most as a remarkable giver. We have many rich men in America, but not all are great givers; not all have learned that it is really more blessed to give than to receive; not all remember that we go through life but once, with its opportunities to brighten the lives about us, and to help to bear the burdens of others.

Mr. Rockefeller began to give very early in life, and for the last forty years has steadily increased his giving as his wealth has increased. Always reticent about his gifts, it is impossible to learn how much he has given or for what purposes. Of necessity some gifts become public, such as his latest to Vassar College of $100,000, a like amount to Rochester University and Theological Seminary, and the same, it is believed, to Spelman Seminary, at Atlanta, Ga., named as a memorial to his father-in-law.