This work updates and expands Franklin Parker, George Peabody, A Biography (Nashville, Tenn.: Vanderbilt Univ. Press, ©1971, revised with illustrations ©1995), and the authors’ related George Peabody publications. Note: To read on your computer Franklin Parker’s out-of-print George Peabody, A Biography, 1995, as a free Google E-book copy and paste on your browser: http://books.google.com/books?id=OPIbk-ZPnF4C&pg=PP1&lpg=PR4&dq=Franklin+Parker,+George+Peabody,+a+Biography&output=html&sig=6R8ZoKwN1B36wtCSePijnLaYJS8
Background: Why these 1 to 14 blogs on George Peabody? The authors attended George Peabody College for Teachers, Nashville (renamed Peabody College of Vanderbilt Univ. July 1, 1979). Franklin Parker’s doctoral dissertation, “George Peabody, Founder of Modern Philanthropy,” 1956, has been an ongoing research and writing interest for over 50 years. The authors’ intent is to perpetuate public memory of him.
George Peabody, now largely forgotten by scholars and the public, was significant as: 1-a Massachusetts-born merchant in the U.S. South, beginning as junior partner in Riggs, Peabody & Co. (1814-29); then head of Peabody, Riggs & Co. (1829-43), importing dry goods and other commodities worldwide for sale to U.S. wholesalers. He transformed himself from merchant into: 2-a London-based merchant-banker, George Peabody & Co. (1838-64), which helped finance the B&O RR, the 2nd Mexican War Loan, the Atlantic Cable, and by choosing Junius Spencer Morgan (1813-90) as partner Oct. 1, 1854, was a root of the JP Morgan international banking firm.
Merchant-turned-banker George Peabody finally became: 3-the best known U.S. philanthropist of the 1850s-60s, founding the Peabody Homes of London for the working poor; founder in the U.S. of 7 Peabody Libraries and Lecture Halls; the Peabody Conservatory of Music, Baltimore; three Peabody Museums at Harvard (Anthropology), Yale (Paleontology), and the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA (maritime history); and founder of the Peabody Education Fund for the South (1867-1914), a model for all later larger U.S. funds and foundations.
Two tributes to George Peabody:
Historian John Steele Gordon called George Peabody the "Most Underrated Philanthropist.... Peabody is unjustly forgotten today, but his unprecedented generosity was greatly appreciated in his time." Ref.: American Heritage. Vol. 50, No. 3 (May-June 1999), pp. 68-69.
"The Peabody Fund, established in 1867 by George Peabody to assist southern education, is often credited with being the first foundation…." Ref.: Reader's Companion to American History, ed. by Eric Foner and John A. Garraty (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1991). Internet: http://HistoryChannel.com/
End of Background. HTML symbols are intended for blogging (ignore). This 3 of 14 blogs covers alphabetically entries from Curry, J.L.M. 11 to Dwight, Sereno Edwards.
Curry, J.L.M. 11-No GP Statue in Statuary Hall Cont'd. Curry urged this action again in a stirring appeal to Va.'s General Assembly in 1895. On Feb. 1, 1896, Va. state Sen. William Lovenstein (1840-96) introduced a resolution and Curry's Jan. 24, 1896, supporting letter, calling for a GP statue, which the Senate agreed to on Feb. 7 and the House of Delegates agreed to on Feb. 8. The Va. Senate asked the governor to correspond with other southern governors. On Feb. 25, 1896, the S.C. legislature asked its governor to do the same, with friends of the proposal appropriating $1,500. In Tenn. the matter was brought up without action being taken. At the end of 1896 a member of the Tenn. Joint Legislative Committee on Education suggested that Peabody Normal College students raise funds for the proposed statue. These efforts were not successful. Refs. below.
Curry, J.L.M. 12-No GP Statue in Statuary Hall Cont'd. . Va., Commonwealth of-c, p. 341, 380, 392 (appended as Senate Document No. XI). S.C.-a, Acts, p. 373. S.C.-b, Journal, Senate, 1896, pp. 6-46. S.C.-c, Journal, House , 1896, pp. 6-46. Brooklyn Daily Eagle (Brooklyn, NY), Feb. 2, 1896, p. 24, c. 2. Courtenay-a. Courtenay-b, pp. 1-10. Va., Commonwealth of-c, pp. 341, 380, 392. Manarin, pp. 224-225. "To Honor Peabody," Richmond Dispatch (Va.), Feb. 2, 1896, p. 12, c. 1.
Curti, Merle Eugene (1897-1996), U.S. historian, wrote the Foreword to Franklin Parker, George Peabody, A Biography (Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 1971 and 1995 revision). He was an authority on U.S. philanthropy, the social ideas of U.S. educators, and U.S. scholarship in the 20th century. Born in Papillion, Neb., M.E. Curti earned the B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees in history from Harvard Univ.; taught history at Beloit College, Smith College, and Columbia University, and in the History Dept., Univ. of Wisconsin (1942-68), retiring as Frederick Jackson Turner Professor Emeritus. His books included The Growth of American Thought (winner of the 1944 Pulitzer Prize in History); Roots of American Loyalty, 1946; and The Making of American Community; A Case Study of Democracy in a Frontier County, 1959.
D
Dabney, Charles William (1855-1945), was a Va.-born educator, administrator, and historian of U.S. education in the South. He was president of the Univ. of Tenn. (1887-1904) and the Univ. of Cincinnati (1904-20). In his book, Universal Education in the South (1936, 2 vols.), he wrote of the influence of the PEF: "George Peabody [was] the first of the line of philanthropists to aid the Southern states in their struggle for education after the Civil War." [And]: "The gift of Mr. Peabody in its purpose to help cure the sores of a distressed people by giving them aid for a constructive plan of education was original and unique. It was not for the mere relief of suffering; it was to lay the foundations for future peace and prosperity through enlightenment and training. In this sense he was a pioneer of a new philanthropy, which did not seek only to palliate, or merely to eliminate the causes of evil and distress, but to build up a better and stronger human society." Ref.: Dabney, I, pp. 101, 104. See: PEF. Quotations by and about GP.
Dabney, Morgan and Co. John Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913) became junior partner in Dabney, Morgan & Co., NYC, in 1864. See: John Pierpont Morgan, Sr. Junius Spencer Morgan.
Dalguise, Scotland, where GP went to rest and fish during 1862-63.
GP & U.S. Minister to Britain G.M. Dallas
Dallas, George Mifflin (1792-1864). 1-U.S. Minister to Britain. GP gave a U.S.-British friendship dinner and entertainment in London, June 13, 1856, to introduce incoming Minister G.M. Dallas. George Mifflin Dallas was U.S. Minister to Britain during 1856-61. He succeeded U.S. Minister James Buchanan (1791-1868), minister during 1853-56, and was in turn succeeded by Charles Francis Adams (1807-86), who was U.S. Minister to Britain during 1861-68. G.M. Dallas was born in Philadelphia, graduated from Princeton College (1810), became a lawyer (1813), was U.S. Sen. from Penn. (1831-33), Penn. Atty. General (1833-35), U.S. Minister to Russia (1837-39), and U.S. Vice President (1845-49) under U.S. Pres. James K. Polk (1795-1849, 11th U.S. president during 1845-49). Among the 130 guests present was Baltimorean John Pendleton Kennedy (1795-1870), who wrote in his journal about the June 13, 1856, dinner: "A great banquet given by Mr. P., with tickets to the Concert there at 3...we got to dinner about 7. We number nearly 130." See: Dinners, GP's, London. Persons named.
Dallas, G.M. 2-Crimean War. This June 13, 1856, dinner which introduced Minister Dallas was held soon after the Crimean War (1855-56, Russia vs. England, France, others), amid some anti-British feeling in the U.S. British Minister to the U.S. John Crampton indiscreetly tried to recruit U.S. volunteers for the British army. U.S. Secty. of State William Learned Marcy (1786-1857) objected and had Crampton recalled. Former British Minister to the U.S. Henry Bulwer-Lytton (1801-72) was to have proposed the health of U.S. Minister Dallas at GP's June 13, 1856, dinner. But Bulwer-Lytton, being Crampton's colleague, explained to GP that to appear at this dinner and propose the health of U.S. Minister Dallas would be unfair to his dismissed colleague John Crampton and would evoke British public resentment. It was a tribute to GP that he could still successfully sponsor this U.S.-British friendship dinner at that tense time of misunderstanding and mistrust. Ref.: Ibid. See: Crimean War. Persons named.
Dallas, G.M. 3-July 4, 1856, Dinner Speech: GP. GP gave a July 4, 1856, Independence Day dinner for more than 100 Americans and a few Englishmen at the Star and Garter Hotel, Richmond, eight miles from London on the Thames at which Minister G.M. Dallas gave a short speech. GP prefaced his toast with these remarks: "I have before me two loving cups, one British the second of American oak, presented to me some years ago by Francis Peabody [1801-68], now present." (Note: Distant cousin Francis Peabody of Salem, Mass., was the fourth son of famed Salem, Mass., shipmaster Joseph Peabody [1757-1844]). Ref.: (July 4, 1856, dinner speeches): London Times, July 7, 1856, p. 10, c. 5-6. London Morning Advertiser, July 7, 1856, p. 4, c. 1-3. New York Times, July 24, 1856, p. 2, c. 2-3. Prime, pp. 630-631.
Dallas, G.M. 4-July 4, 1856, Dinner Speech: GP Cont'd.: "Let me say a few words before passing these cups. The first dinner I gave in connection with American Independence Day was a dinner in 1850 at which the American Minister, American and English friends were present. In 1851, the Great Exhibition year, I substituted a ball and banquet. Some of my friends were apprehensive that the affair would not be accepted that year of Anglo-American rivalry but the acceptance of the Duke of Wellington made the affair successful. For twenty years I have been in this kingdom of England and in my humble way mean to spread peace and good-will. I know no party North or South but my whole country. With these loving cups let us know only friendship between East and West." Ref.: Ibid.
Dallas, G.M. 5-July 4, 1856, Dinner Speech: PM Brown. GP proposed "The Day We Celebrate," followed by "Her Majesty, the Queen," and "the President of the United States." MP William Brown (1784-1864) from Liverpool said: "The day we celebrate will ever be remembered in the history of the world. For we English derive as much satisfaction from it as you do. None of us are answerable for the sins of statesmanship or the errors of our forefathers. George Washington, remembered with respect by England and the world, would rejoice to see the enterprising spirit of the country he brought into existence, a country which seeks to bridge the Atlantic and Pacific via canal and now explores the Arctic seas (cheers)." Ref.: Ibid.
Dallas, G.M. 6-July 4, 1856, Dinner Speech: PM Brown Cont'd.: "I deny that England is jealous of the United States. We rejoice in your prosperity and know that when you prosper we share in it. It is not true that the fortunes of one country arise from the misfortune of another. While we have differences they can be amicably adjudicated (cheers). I toast the American Minister, Mr. George M. Dallas (cheers)." Ref.: Ibid.
Dallas, G.M. 7-July 4, 1856, Dinner Speech: Minister Dallas. Minister G.M. Dallas said: "I rejoice to find so many patriots present to celebrate American Independence Day. We are, as a country, but eighty years old, yet how proud we are of her (cheers). Small and feeble at birth, she now contains twenty-seven million people. Once on the margin of the Atlantic she is now an immense continent. It is a matter of sincere regret that the free nations are not always the sincerest friends (hear, hear)." A complimentary toast was proposed to GP as host. His few remarks in response concluded by saying that the land of his birth was always uppermost in his mind. When he sat down the band played "Home, Sweet Home." Ref.: Ibid.
Dallas, G.M. 8-July 4, 1856, Dinner Speech: S.F.B. Morse. Present at this dinner was Irish-born sculptor John Edward Jones (1806-62), who made a bust of GP in 1856. Also present was U.S. inventor Samuel F.B. Morse (1791-1872). A toast to "The Telegraph" was suddenly proposed. Not anticipating the toast and not having a reply at hand, Morse rose and modestly quoted from Psalm 19: "Their line is gone out through all the earth and their words to the end of the world." Ibid. See: persons named. U.S. Ministers to Britain and GP.
Dana, Daniel (1771-1859), was the pastor of the Congregational Church, Federal St., Newburyport, Mass. In 1811 when GP was age 16 he attended this church, sitting in his paternal uncle John Peabody's (1768-before 1826) pew, when he clerked in his older brother David Peabody's (1790-1841) dry goods store. Daniel Dana was the uncle of Samuel Turner Dana (1810-77), Boston merchant, with whom GP had business dealings and in whose Boston home GP rested on June 10, 1869. See Dana, Samuel Turner. Visits to the U.S. by GP.
Dana, James Dwight (1813-1895), was born in Utica, N.Y., was a Yale graduate under chemistry Professor Benjamin Silliman, Sr. (1779-1864), whose daughter he married. As Silliman Professor of Natural History and Geology at Yale, James Dwight Dana taught GP's nephew Othniel Charles Marsh (1831-99) at Yale's graduate Sheffield School of Science (1861-62). When O.C. Marsh learned of his uncle GP's intent to aid science at Harvard Univ., Marsh consulted Dana and the Sillimans, senior and junior, who encouraged Marsh to influence GP's gifts of $150,000 each to the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard Univ. and the Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale Univ., both founded 1866. See: Marsh, Othniel Charles. Science: GP's Gifts to Science and Science Education.
Dana, Samuel Turner (1810-77), was a Boston merchant with whom GP had business dealings and whose uncle Daniel Dana (1771-1859) was pastor of the Congregational Church, Federal St., Newburyport, Mass., which GP attended with his paternal uncle John Peabody (1768-before 1826) in 1811. GP rested at Samuel Turner Dana's Boston home on June 10, 1869. See Dana, Daniel. Visits to the U.S. by GP.
GP & Favorite Sister Judith
Daniels, Judith Dodge (née Peabody) Russell (1799-1879). 1-GP's Sister. Judith Dodge (née Peabody) Russell Daniels was GP's younger sister by four years, fourth born of eight children of Thomas Peabody (1762-1811) and Judith (née Dodge) Peabody (1770-1830), in South Parish, Danvers, Mass (renamed Peabody on April 13, 1868). In Sept. 1831 she married lawyer Jeremiah Russell (d. May 2, 1860) and lived in Georgetown, Mass. (formerly Rowley, her mother's birthplace). See: Georgetown, Mass.
GP’s Family Link
Daniels, Judith Dodge (née Peabody) Russell. 2-Judith was GP's Family Link. She was for most of GP's life abroad his family link and his disburser of family funds, including payment for clothing, other needs, and education costs in private schools of his brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, and cousins. She was the mother of George Peabody Russell (1835-1909), GP's nephew, a Harvard graduate and lawyer who went with GP to White Sulphur Springs, W. Va., summer 1869, accompanied GP's remains after death from London for burial in Harmony Grove Cemetery, Salem, Mass., and was one of the 16 original PEF trustees.
Daniels, Judith Dodge (née Peabody) Russell. 3-Memorial Church, Georgetown, Mass. After her first husband Jeremiah Russell's death about 1860, Judith married again in 1862 to GP's childhood school friend Robert Shillaber Daniels (b.1791). They too lived in Georgetown, Mass. A doctrinal dispute between the minister and some parishioners, including Judith, in the Georgetown, Mass., Congregational church, resulted in the separate worship by the dissenters in a temporary chapel. In 1866, at the suggestion of his sister Judith and in his mother's memory, GP built a memorial Congregational church for $70,000 in Georgetown, Mass. The intimate contacts between GP and his sister Judith through the years, by letters and during his three U.S. visits from London, offer insights into GP's family relations, commercial career, friendships, hometown relations, and other concerns. See: Memorial Church, Georgetown, Mass. Persons named.
GP, Age 18
Daniels, Judith Dodge (née Peabody) Russell. 4-June 28, 1813, Letter. GP's June 28, 1813, letter to his sister Judith was written a year and a month after his arrival in Georgetown, D.C., from Newburyport, Mass., with paternal uncle John Peabody (1768-before 1826). Uncle and nephew opened a dry goods store, May 15, 1812, in Georgetown whose operation soon fell on GP, his uncle developing other interests. The letter, with errors, was hastily written when GP was age 18, two days after his 12 days' service in a military unit to defend the military district of D.C. in the War of 1812. Judith was then staying with their maternal grandparents in Thetford, Vt.: Jeremiah Dodge (1744-1824) and Judith (née Spofford) Dodge (1749-1828).
Daniels, Judith Dodge (née Peabody) Russell. 5-June 28, 1813, Letter Cont'd. GP wrote Judith: "GeorgeTown (D.C.) 28 June 1813 Dear Miss J. Peabody Amagion not dear Sister that two years absence has eras[d] you from my memory. Nor impute my remissness in not before answering you[r] Interesting letter of the 9th April, to any diminution of love, when I assure you not a day passes but what brings you and the rest of my friends to my memory, and makes me more and more regret the loss of their Society. I however pass my time as pleasantly as can be expected so far from them." Ref.: GP, Georgetown, D.C., to Judith Peabody, Thetford, Vt., June 28, 1813, Archives, Peabody Institute Library, Peabody, Mass. Printed copy in newspaper clipping pasted back of a GP portrait, PEM, Salem, Mass.
Daniels, Judith Dodge (née Peabody) Russell. 6-June 28, 1813, Letter Cont'd.: "The acquaintances I have found are not very numerous, but agreeable, most particularly the society of some young Ladies which can only be exceeded by that of my distant friends, which I expect to have enjoyed for a short time before this, but owing to the situation of our business, I regret to say it will be impossible for me to leave till next Spring, at which time I anticipate with pleasure a short visit at Thetford where I have spent some of my pleasantest days and on which I often derive pleasure in ruminating and at which place I think with your Thetford friends, you cannot but pass your time agreeably." Ref.: Ibid.
Daniels, Judith Dodge (née Peabody) Russell. 7-June 28, 1813, Letter Cont'd.: "But in my Situation I cannot feel that ease & tranquillity I should wish as the management of the business in which I am engaged entirely devolves on me, and subjects me to all the cares and anxieties that generally attends it. We are also under considerable apprehensions of an attack from the British upon this district, So much so that the President has made a requisition of 500 men which have been ordered on duty and are now encamp.d within sight of this place. I was one of the detach.d members, but fortunately the day previous to the draft attach.d myself to a choir of Artillery, otherwise it would have cost me from 50 to 75$ for a Substitute. My duty however now is not the easyest having to meet every other day for the purpose of drill exercise and which is the case with every person capable of military duty in the district." Ref.: Ibid.
Daniels, Judith Dodge (née Peabody) Russell. 8-June 28, 1813, Letter Cont'd.: "Almost every mail from the southward brings accounts of some new depredations committed in the Chesapeake Bay. This day's brought accounts of the destruction of Hampton a small town near Norfolk, and the passengers in the stage mentioned that when they left, families were moving from Norfolk in every direction expecting an attack from the British. The President is dangerously sick, he has sent 50 miles for a physitian [sic]. My last letters from Achsah was in May the family was in good health, Achsah informd me that Uncle D was in N.Y. I wish you to Inform me In what part of the city he resides, as should I go there this fall I should like to call on him. I hope Uncle Elipholet has recovered his health before this, my respects to him and all the rest of the folks and Remain Yr Affe. Brother Geo. Peabody Tell Gransir I shall for the present send him one of the Papers Printed in this Vicinity." For GP's circumstances at the time and location of this letter, See: War of 1812. Ref.: Ibid.
GP Educating Relatives
Daniels, Judith Dodge (née Peabody) Russell. 9-Bradford Academy, 1820s. Soon after his arrival in Georgetown, D.C., May 1812, GP became the family's main support. By 1816 he had paid his deceased father's debts and restored the mortgaged Danvers home to his mother and younger siblings who from his father's death (May 11, 1811) had to live with Spofford relatives in Salem. GP then paid for five relatives' schooling at Bradford Academy, Bradford, Mass.: 1-his youngest brother Jeremiah Dodge Peabody (1805-77), who attended Bradford in 1819; 2-sister Judith Dodge, from 1821; 3-sister Mary Gaines Peabody (1807-34), 1822; 4-younger cousin Adolphus William Peabody (b. 1814, paternal uncle John Peabody's son), 1827-29; and 5-nephew George Peabody (1815-32, oldest brother David Peabody's son), 1827. See: Bradford Academy, Bradford, Mass.
Daniels, Judith Dodge (née Peabody) Russell. 10-Judith's Burst of Gratitude. Judith had taught school for a time in Chester, N.H., returned to teach near Bradford, and soon managed a home GP bought in West Bradford where his mother and relatives attending Bradford Academy lived. In a burst of gratitude, Judith wrote to GP in Baltimore May 8, 1823: "Were my brother like other brothers, were it a common favor, which I have received from him, and could I do justice to the feelings of my own heart, I would now formally express my gratitude, but I forebear;...and even then the happiness, that I have enjoyed while acquiring it, would lay me under obligation, which I could never cancel..." Ref.: Judith Dodge Peabody, Bradford, Mass., to GP, Baltimore, May 8, 1823, Peabody Papers, PEM, Salem, Mass.
Daniels, Judith Dodge (née Peabody) Russell. 11-Grandfather Jeremiah Dodge's Death. Judith wrote GP on March 18, 1824, that their maternal grandfather Jeremiah Dodge (1744-1824) had died on Feb. 29, 1824, age 79: "We received a letter from Thetford last week informing us that our venerable and beloved Grandfather is no more; he died on the 29th Feb. after an illness of only five days. Grandma did not write of what disorder, but we had previously heard of the melancholy event, by a casual traveller, who stated that he died of a fever. Grandmother's health is not good...." Surviving maternal grandmother Judith (née Spofford) Dodge (1749-1828) was then age 75, had been married 54 years, and died four years later in 1828. Their daughter Judith (née Dodge) Peabody, GP's mother, was the first born of eight children. Ref.: (Grandfather Jeremiah Dodge's death): Judith Dodge Peabody, Danvers, Mass., to GP, Baltimore, March 18, 1824, Peabody Papers, PEM, Salem, Mass.
GP’s First European Buying Trip
Daniels, Judith Dodge (née Peabody) Russell. 12-GP's First Trip Abroad. In Oct. 1827 GP prepared for his first European commercial trip. He had an opportunity to sell a crop of southern cotton for the cotton mills in Lancashire, England. To do this in person rather than by correspondence meant better profit plus opportunity to purchase salable cotton prints, woolens, linens, and other dry goods for U.S. markets. He also wanted to develop foreign agents and connections for Riggs, Peabody & Co. His passport from Washington, D.C., dated Oct. 22, 1827, signed by U.S. Secty. of State Henry Clay, listed GP as Age 32, Stature 6 feet l inch, Forehead low, Eyes light blue, Nose rather large, Mouth small, Chin pointed, Hair dark brown. Ref.: (GP's Oct. 22, 1827, passport): Peabody Papers, PEM, Salem, Mass.
GP’s Second European Buying Trip
Daniels, Judith Dodge (née Peabody) Russell. 13-GP's Second European Trip, April 1830-Aug. 15, 1831. GP wrote Judith of his second commercial buying trip abroad, April 1830 to Aug. 15, 1831, about 19 months, With an unknown American friend he traveled by carriage some 10,000 miles in England, France, Italy, and Switzerland. He wrote Judith on Aug. 25, 1831: "Dear Sister, I'm happy to inform you of my arrival here about two weeks since after a pleasant...(for the season) passage from Liverpool.--The Ship being new and very easy I suffered much less by sickness than usual, and during most of the time was able to eat my meals with the other passengers." Ref.: GP, NYC, to Judith Dodge Peabody, West Bradford, Mass., Aug. 25, 1831, Peabody Papers, Yale Univ.
Daniels, Judith Dodge (née Peabody) Russell. 14-GP's Second European Trip, April 1830-Aug. 15, 1831 Cont'd.: "My general health never was better than at the present time, hard labour & the climate of England having had the good effect, I trust of eradicating from my system all disposition to Bilious Fevers to which I was a few years since very subject.--My time has been passed in England, Ireland, & Scotland, but in February last [1831] in company with an American gentleman [identity not known] I left England on a tour of business & amusement & visited Paris where we passed a few days--from thence through the South of France to Savoy crossing Mount ?Anis? (the Alps) to Turin in Italy--to Genoa--Lucca--Pisa (where is the celebrated leaning tower), Leghorn, Rome (where we passed 13 days) to Naples--Mount Vesuvius--Pompeii &c--back to Rome--Florence--Bologna--Venice--Padua--Verona--Milan--cross at the Simplon (one of the highest of the Alps on snow 40' deep 1 May) into Switzerland--descended the valley of Rhone to Geneva--passed near Mt. Blanc to Lyon--Paris &c.--" Ref.: Ibid.
Daniels, Judith Dodge (née Peabody) Russell. 15-GP's Second European Trip, Jan. 1830-Aug 15, 1831 Cont'd.: "We traveled in our own carriage drawn by from 2 to 4 horses which we changed every 10-15 miles and by paying the postilions liberally we traveled very rapidly [and] was enabled to see as much of the countries in 2 months as most persons would have done in 4 besides attending to business--Whenever the country was uninteresting we traveled night as well as day, & eat our meals in our carriage without stopping--during the 15 months of my absence I have traveled nearly 10,000 miles by land without the slightest accident having occurred--have purchased goods in England--Ireland--Scotland--France & Italy & shipped to this country to amount to $400,000 a considerable portion of which are now arriving here--Phila. & Baltimore and are selling to a good profit--so that in every respect my tour to Europe will result most advantageously & fully answer my expectations.--" Ref.: Ibid.
Daniels, Judith Dodge (née Peabody) Russell. 16-GP's Second European Trip, April 1830-Aug 15, 1831 Cont'd.: "I have not yet been to Baltimore[,] business having detained me here & in Phila. I return from the latter city 2 days since intending to go to New Haven, but finding it impractical I have wrote George [Peabody, nephew, 1815-32, oldest brother David Peabody's son] to come here for a day or two & after I have arranged for his future studies shall go to Baltimore.--probably in 2 or 3 days.--From David I learn you are all well and that Sophronia is married but does not know where she is, I therefore wish Judith to forward this letter to her & Mary after reading it.--David not being very well, has by my recommendation gone into the interior of New York & will probably pass some time with Mary & Sophronia.--The weather has been unusually hot & being obliged to attend to a good deal of business I have suffered much by it.--It is now however getting cool. Yours affectionately George Peabody" Ref.: Ibid.
GP’s Sister Judith Married, 1831
Daniels, Judith Dodge (née Peabody) Russell. 17-Sister Judith Married, 1831. Judith Dodge Peabody sent GP's Aug. 25, 1831, letter on his European travels to sisters Sophronia and Mary Gaines. She added at its end the exciting news of her own pending marriage: "...I shall be married about the 20th Sept. I intend with very little ceremony...." Her 16-year-old nephew George Peabody (1815-32), who died of scarlet fever the next year, walked from Haverhill, Mass., to Rowley, Mass., with a friend to visit his Aunt Judith and wrote to his father, David Peabody (1790-1841) in Buffalo, N.Y.: "She is in very good spirits now. She has been married about three weeks to Mr. Jeremiah Russell who is a very likely man and is doing a very good business as a lawyer." Ref.: (Judith to be married): added by Judith to end of GP's Aug. 25, 1831, letter describing his second European trip to Judith. Ref.: Nephew George Peabody (1815-32), Haverhill, Mass., to his father David Peabody, Buffalo N.Y., Oct. 11, 1831, Peabody Papers, PEM, Salem, Mass.
GP’s 1856-57 U.S. Visit
Daniels, Judith Dodge (née Peabody) Russell. 18-GP's 1856-57 U.S. Visit. Incredibly busy during his first U.S. visit after nearly 20 years' absence in London (Sept. 15, 1856-Aug. 19, 1857), GP stayed when in Mass. at sister Judith's home in Georgetown, Mass. Greeted on arrival by delegations and swamped with public dinner invitations, he declined them all until after his hometown reception. Judith had written him while still in England not to accept public dinners before the Oct. 9, 1856, public affair planned for him by his hometown friends. South Danvers, Mass., people, she wrote, had voted $3,000 for a public welcome for him and they "will be extremely disappointed if they do not do much more than anybody else and do it first. They are tenacious of their right to you." See: Visits to the U.S. by GP.
Daniels, Judith Dodge (née Peabody) Russell. 19-GP's 1856-57 U.S. Visit Cont'd. On Oct. 9 GP went from Georgetown by carriage with sister Judith and her son, his nephew George Peabody Russell, to their gaily decorated hometown of South Danvers, Mass. GP was greeted by a gun salute, by the committee on arrangements, by crowds of over 20,000 people, by bands playing and by marching school children. GP spoke after the welcoming address by Alfred Amos Abbott (1820-84). With pride in his London firm, GP told 1,500 dinner guests, including Edward Everett (1794-1865), U.S. Minister to Britain during 1841-45: "Heaven has been pleased to reward my efforts with success, and has permitted me to establish...a house in a great metropolis of England.... I have endeavored...to make it an American house; to furnish it with American journals; to make it a center for American news, and an agreeable place for my American friends visiting England." Ref.: Ibid. For Oct. 9, 1856, proceedings, speeches, and sources, See: South Danvers, Mass., Oct. 9, 1856, GP Celebration.
Daniels, Judith Dodge (née Peabody) Russell. 20-GP's 1856-57 U.S. Visit Cont'd. For the first time his nieces and nephews saw their Uncle George, who had been paying for their schooling. He was a legend made real. Nephew Othniel Charles Marsh (1831-99), about to enter Yale College, wrote in his diary (Oct. 12, 1856): "Reached Georgetown in the evening and found Uncle George here. Was much pleased with him." GP told two of his nephews that if they conducted themselves well and were steady in their business, he would in a few years place them in a position where hard labor would be unnecessary. He did not intend to make them rich, he said, but by their own effort they would have a good income. If any of his nephews disgraced themselves or him, he admonished, or became engaged or married before being financially able to do so, he would withdraw his support and strike their names from his will. Turning to Judith he asked her to relate these terms to all his nephews. Ref.: Schuchert and LeVene, p. 73.
"...make a home for you..."
Daniels, Judith Dodge (née Peabody) Russell. 21-"...make a home for you..." On Nov. 5, 1856, while GP was traveling to see friends, Judith wrote to him in a burst of gratitude: "George, if you want me to move to South Danvers and make a home for you among people who love you, I will do so. I don't know how I will use the leisure you have made possible for me. I remember now what you said to me--that no one thinks better of me for being better off than my neighbors. What are your plans for Thanksgiving?" Ref.: Mrs. Judith (née Peabody) Russell, Georgetown, Mass., to GP, Nov. 5, 1856, Peabody Papers, PEM, Salem, Mass.
Daniels, Judith Dodge (née Peabody) Russell. 22-Teasing Remark; Touch of Pity. Judith worried about GP's health on his travels by train, boat, and coach. He was frequently ill and she hoped he was always near medical aid. She knew of his concerns getting ready for his Feb. 12, 1857, letter founding the PIB. She read news accounts of receptions for him given by the Md. Historical Society, Jan. 30, 1857, and the Md. Institute for the Promotion of the Mechanic Arts, Feb. 2, 1857. The Md. Institute reception, she wrote him Feb. 19, 1857, must have touched him deeply. Among the young ladies he had saluted so "heartily" in Baltimore that night, she teased, "may have been the daughter of...the beautiful [girl] whom as you remarked one day you would have married, if you had been 'silly enough!'" It was a teasing remark, yet there was more than a touch of pity in it. Ref.: Mrs. Judith (née Peabody) Russell, Georgetown, Mass., to GP, Jan. 1, Feb. 19, 1857, Peabody Papers, PEM, Salem, Mass.
"I have given a tear of sympathy..."
Daniels, Judith Dodge (née Peabody) Russell. 23-"I have given a tear of sympathy..." Judith added poignantly in her Feb. 19, 1857, letter to GP (her underlining): "What...results of good, not only to your contemporaries but to 'future generations,' were pending on that one act of self-denial, practiced by you in the days of youthful romance. Even at this late day, I have given a tear of sympathy for what may be presumed to have been your feelings, when you made the 'wise' decision, and resolved to submit to what you certainly have a right to think a hard lot: and, did I believe that through life you had been less happy, I should most sincerely regret your 'wisdom' spite of generations, present and future--myself and posterity included...." "But my dear brother is not desolate although alone. One affection, at least, deeper, stronger, steadier than that of a wife, clinging to him with a firmer tenacity as age creeps on, and which no circumstances can change, follows him through all his wanderings. And for the children...all the children are his children." Ref.: Ibid.
GP’s Niece Julia Adelaide
Daniels, Judith Dodge (née Peabody) Russell. 24-GP and Niece Julia Adelaide. When GP's Feb. 12, 1857, PIB founding letter was published in Mass. newspapers, Judith was thrilled: "The latter part of it," she wrote GP, "has been copied into all the religious newspapers, as being very important and impressive." She was glad of his visit to Zanesville, Ohio. Knowing how lonely he was she was glad how quickly he took to his heart niece Julia Adelaide Peabody (b. April 25, 1835), their deceased brother David Peabody's daughter. She was glad GP had sent Julia to school in Philadelphia. She recalled how GP had worked for David in Newburyport, Mass., how GP had risen by determination and hard work, how David's fortunes fell until he could not pay his rent in NYC, how time and again GP had aided brothers David, Thomas, Jeremiah, and all the family. Poor Thomas had been the worst in lack of gratitude. David, too, had incurred debts. GP helped pay these debts and made good on activities of both brothers that bordered on dishonesty. See: Persons named.
Daniels, Judith Dodge (née Peabody) Russell. 25-GP and Niece Julia Adelaide Cont'd. "I trust," Judith wrote GP May 20, 1857, "that Julia will yet be a solace to your declining years, and by her affection, wipe away the remembrance of the wrongs you have received from her father." Ref.: Mrs. Judith (née Peabody) Russell, Georgetown, Mass., to GP, April 20 and May 20, 1857, Peabody Papers, PEM, Salem, Mass.
Daniels, Judith Dodge (née Peabody) Russell. 26-Family Burial Lot. In her same May 20, 1857, letter to GP Judith wrote that she had been to Harmony Grove Cemetery, Salem, Mass., as he had requested. Here she had seen "the most beautiful lot in Danvers part...." This choice of the Peabody family burial place was among the last things GP arranged on his 1856-57 visit. On this plot on Anemone Ave., lot number 51, would be placed the remains of their father and mother, along with their deceased siblings: Achsah Spofford (1791-1821), Thomas (1801-35), Mary Gaines (1807-34), and David (1790-41). Here nearly 13 years later on a cold and stormy Feb. 8, 1870, GP would be buried. Some sources at the time of his burial described it as on a knoll which as a boy he could see from the top of his Danvers home, a place where he had once played. Ref.: Ibid. See Death and Funeral, GP's.
Judith's Son: George Peabody Russell
Daniels, Judith Dodge (née Peabody) Russell. 27-1859. Judith received a brooch from GP in May 1859. He had taken Matthew Brady's (1823-96) photograph of him and had a miniature of it made into a brooch for her. She thanked him and related the family news. She had invited Julia to visit her but Julia declined because her mother was ill. Judith, concerned about GP's health, told him not to write if it was painful for him to do so, that their old friend Horatio Gates Somerby (1805-72), Newburyport, Mass.-born London resident genealogist and sometime GP agent, had offered to write to her for him. Her son, George Peabody Russell, had graduated from Harvard College (B.A., 1856), spent some time working in Rufus Choate's (1799-1859) law office, and had joined his father's law practice. Judith's husband, Jeremiah Russell, whose debts GP had helped to pay, was now in better circumstances. Judith hoped GP would spend his last years quietly in the U.S. with her. Ref.: Mrs. Judith (née Peabody) Russell, Georgetown, Mass., to GP, May 30, 1859, Peabody Papers, PEM, Salem, Mass.
Daniels, Judith Dodge (née Peabody) Russell. 28-Nephew GP Russell. Judith's son George Peabody Russell wrote gratefully to his uncle in late Aug. 1859: "If I am anything in the world, I shall owe it to you.... I will try to imitate the example of the good man with whom your care placed me to commence the study of that profession [Rufus Choate]; and in honesty and integrity in all dealing with my fellow-men, I will strive to follow the noblest example of which I know--your own." G.P. Russell, one of the 16 PEF original trustees, accompanied his gravely ill uncle GP to White Sulphur Springs, W.Va., July 23-Aug. 30, 1869. Notified of GP's death in London, Nov. 4, 1869, nephew G.P. Russell left for England to accompany his uncle's remains home for burial. Ref.: George Peabody Russell, Haverhill, to GP, Aug. 30, 1859, Peabody Papers, PEM, Salem, Mass.
Daniels, Judith Dodge (née Peabody) Russell. 29-Memorial Church, Georgetown, Mass., 1867-68. For the Memorial Church, Georgetown, Mass., GP built in honor of his mother (she was born there when it was called Rowley, Mass.), 1867-68, at sister Judith's suggestion, See: Memorial Church, Georgetown, Mass.
Close Brother-Sister Relationship
Daniels, Judith Dodge (née Peabody) Russell. 30-At GP's Funeral. From the 1830s onward GP was in close mail contact with sister Judith Dodge through whom he conducted family business, payments, gifts, and other matters. On his three U.S. visits (1856-57, 1866-67, and 869) he stayed in her Georgetown, Mass. home. Theirs was a close brother-sister relationship. She probably knew more about him, his thoughts, ambitions, fears, hopes, and regrets than any other human being. While other GP-Judith family letters are not known, the last contact with her was by Peabody Institute's (Peabody, Mass.) first librarian Fitch Poole (1803-73). He recorded in his diary [Nov. 7 [1869]: "Saw Mrs. Daniels about funeral. See: Death and Funeral, GP's. Poole, Fitch.
Daniels, Robert Shillaber (b.1791), second husband of GP's sister Judith Dodge (née Peabody) Russell (1799-1879). He gave a welcoming speech at the Oct. 9, 1856, GP celebration dinner. See: Daniels, Judith Dodge (née Peabody) Russell.
Danvers Centennial Celebration, 1852. See: Danvers, Mass., Centennial Celebration, June 16, 1852.
Danvers Fire Brigade, Light Infantry Co., Salem Brass Band, and other civic units participated with enthusiasm at the Danvers Centennial Celebration, June 16, 1852 (renamed South Danvers in 1855 and renamed Peabody, Mass., April 13, 1868). See Danvers, Mass., Centennial Celebration, June 16, 1852.
Danvers, Mass., was originally named Brooksby Village, Mass. (1626), was renamed Salem Village (to 1752), then Danvers (1752-1855; GP was born on Feb. 18, 1795), was then divided into North Danvers and South Danvers (1855-68, with GP's family home in South Danvers), and finally renamed Peabody, Mass. (since April 13, 1868). GP's birthplace, 205 Washington St., Peabody, Mass., is now the George Peabody House Civic Center. See: Brooksby, Mass. Peabody, Mass. South Danvers, Mass.
First Peabody Institute Library, 1852
Danvers, Mass., Centennial, June 16, 1852. 1-Danvers-Salem Separation Centennial. GP, absent in London, chose to announce his first Peabody Institute Library gift in his hometown on June 16, 1852, the day of the Danvers, Mass., Centennial Celebration. The 100th anniversary of Danvers' separation from Salem, Mass., was a gala occasion. Danvers streets were full of horse-drawn vehicles, flags flying, and buildings gaily decorated. Marching to the speakers' platform and to the stirring music of the Salem Brass Band were uniformed members of the Light Infantry Company, the Danvers Fire Dept., and 1,500 school children. Ref.: Centennial...Danvers, Mass.,…June 16, 1852. Tapley-b, pp. 161-163. "Danvers Centennial Celebration," Littell's Living Age, Vol. 34, No. 425 (July 10, 1852), pp. 85-87. American Journal of Education, Vol. l, No. 3 (March 1856), pp. 237-242; and Vol. 29 (1879), pp. xxxviii-xxxix.
Danvers, Mass., Centennial, June 16, 1852. 2-Speeches. The Gov. of Mass. and others gave speeches. Names of prominent Danvers and Salem men and women were read aloud and their lives described. Letters extolling the importance of the day were read from prominent Mass. political figures, including Robert Charles Winthrop (1809-94), Daniel Webster (1782-1852), Edward Everett (1794-1865), Rufus Choate (1799-1859), and others. Mindful that GP was Danvers' best known and most successful native son, proud of his being a merchant-banker in London, the Committee on Arrangements had invited GP to attend. He was unable to leave London but all present had heard that his acknowledging letter would be read publicly, that within that letter was a gift to the town of Danvers and a sealed sentiment. Ref.: Ibid.
GP's May 26, 1852, Letter
Danvers, Mass., Centennial, June 16, 1852. 3-GP's May 26, 1852, Letter. GP's letter, dated London, May 26, 1852, was read publicly by John Waters Proctor (1791-1874), GP's playmate as a boy, whose better-off family had sent him to Lancaster Academy when GP was apprenticed in Sylvester Proctor's store. GP's letter to the Committee on Arrangements read: "I acknowledge your letter inviting my presence at the one hundredth anniversary of the separation of Danvers and Salem and regret that my engagements do not permit me to attend." Ref.: Ibid.
Danvers, Mass., Centennial, June 16, 1852. 4-GP's May 26, 1852, Letter Cont'd.: "It was in a humble house in the South Parish that I was born and in the common schools there obtained the limited education my parents could afford. To the principles learned there I owe the foundations for any success Heaven has been pleased to grant me. Though my early manhood was spent in Baltimore I still cherish the recollections of my early days and anticipate visiting again the town where I was born." "It is sixteen years since I left my native land. I have seen the great changes in her wealth, power, and position among nations. I had the mortification to witness the social standing of Americans in Europe seriously affected; but, thank Heaven, I have lived to see the cause nearly annihilated. I can hardly see bounds to our possible future if we preserve harmony among ourselves, keep good faith with the rest of the world, and plant the New England Common School among the emigrants filling up the Mississippi Valley." "I enclose a sentiment to be opened after the reading of this letter." Ref.: Ibid.
Danvers, Mass., Centennial, June 16, 1852. 5-GP's May 26, 1852, Letter Cont'd. John W. Proctor opened the sealed envelope and read: "By George Peabody, of London: Education--a debt due from present to future generations." "In acknowledgment of the payment of that debt by the generation which preceded me in my native town of Danvers, and to aid in its prompt future discharge, I give to the inhabitants of that town the sum of TWENTY THOUSAND DOLLARS, for the promotion of knowledge and morality among them." Ref.: Ibid.
Danvers, Mass., Centennial, June 16, 1852. 6-GP's May 26, 1852, Letter Cont'd.: "This gift has occupied my mind for some years. I add these conditions only to accomplish the purpose of my sentiment: that the legal voters shall meet to accept the gift and elect twelve trustees to establish a Lyceum for lectures free to all, that seven thousand dollars shall be invested in a building for the Lyceum, that ten thousand dollars be invested as a permanent fund. All else I leave to you merely suggesting it advisable to exclude sectarian theology and political discussion forever from the walls of instruction." "If Captain Sylvester Proctor [1769-1852, to whom GP had been apprenticed, aged 12-16, 1807-11] shall be living then and there be no objection, I shall request that he be selected to lay the cornerstone of the Lyceum Building." Ref.: Ibid.
Danvers, Mass., Centennial, June 16, 1852. 7-Cornerstone Laid, Aug. 20, 1853. Because Sylvester Proctor died Sept. 20, 1852, the cornerstone of the first Peabody Institute (Danvers, renamed South Danvers, 1855-68, and Peabody since 1868) was laid on Aug. 20, 1853, by former U.S. Minister to Britain Abbott Lawrence (1792-1855). This first Peabody Institute (lecture hall, lecture fund, and public library) was dedicated on Sept. 29, 1854, with lawyer-jurist Rufus Choate (1799-1859) as main speaker, and was soon after opened to the public. To his first Peabody Institute in what is now Peabody, Mass., GP gave a total of $2l7,000 (1852-69). Soon after Danvers was divided into North Danvers and South Danvers (1855-68), GP established his second Peabody Institute in neighboring Danvers, Mass. (formerly North Danvers), giving it a total of $100,000 (1856-69). Ref.: (Abbott Lawrence cornerstone laying speech, Aug 20, 1853): Hill, R.H., p. 7. New York Herald Edition for Europe, Aug. 24, 1853, p. 1, c. 2. Cochrane (comp.), pp. 49-50. See: Lawrence, Abbott. Proctor, Sylvester. U.S. Ministers to Britain and GP.
Darbishire, Henry Astley (1825-99), was the British architect who designed the 19th century estates containing Peabody homes of London. He owned one copy of a GP portrait by British artist Lowes Cato Dickinson (1819-1908); a second copy is owned by the Peabody Trust of London which built and managed the Peabody homes of London; and a third copy is in the PIB. Ref.: Information supplied by Christine Wagg, Peabody Trust Central Administration, London, Aug. 25, 1998. Ref.: [Darbishire]. See: Dickinson, Lowes Cato. Peabody, George, Illustrations.
Darwin, Charles (1809-1882), British scientist and leading advocate of the theory of evolution, stated in a letter in 1880 to Othniel Charles Marsh (1831-99) that Marsh's fossil findings provided the best evidence for the theory of evolution in the past 20 years. For O.C. Marsh's visit to Charles Darwin and other scientists during Marsh's 1863-65 study in Europe, with sources, See: Marsh, Othniel Charles.
Davenport, Moses (1806-61). During GP’s Sept. 15, 1856 to Aug. 19, 1857, U.S. visit he attended the Essex County Agricultural Fair, Newburyport, Mass. (Oct. 2, 1856). He recognized and greeted merchant and former mayor Moses Davenport (1806-61). A man stepping from the crowd said to GP: you don't know me. Shaking the man's hand GP replied, "Yes, I do, Prescott Spaulding [1781-1864]," explaining to all that this was the merchant who stood surety for his first $2,000 goods on consignment from Boston merchant James Reed in early 1812 when at age 17 he left Newburyport, Mass., with paternal uncle John Peabody (1768-before 1826) to open a store in Georgetown, D.C., May 15, 1812. Ref.: "Davenport, Moses…," pp. 7-8. See: Visits to the U.S. by GP.
PCofVU Predecessors
Davidson Academy, Nashville, Tenn. 1-Origin. Fort Nashborough was built 1779-80 on the Cumberland River to protect the earliest settlers. In 1784 surveyor Thomas Molloy divided a 640-acre land grant including Fort Nashville into three tracts. The southernmost tract was set aside as public property to support a school. Davidson Academy (1785-1806) was chartered as a collegiate institution Dec. 29, 1785, by the N.C. legislature, eleven years before Tenn. statehood in 1796. The N.C. legislature endowed it with 240 acres of land. On Sept. 11, 1806, Davidson Academy was rechartered as Cumberland College (1806-26) by the Tenn. legislature. On Nov. 27, 1826, Cumberland College was rechartered again by the Tenn. legislature as the Univ. of Nashville (1826-75); rechartered as Peabody Normal College (1875-1911); rechartered as GPCFT (1914-79); and renamed PCofVU, since 1979. Ref.: Corlew-a, pp. 119-120. "The First Nashville, 1780's," Nashville Tennessean, Sept. 2, 1996, p. 6A. Folmsbee, et . al., pp. 274-275. Nichols, pp. 278-279. Conkin, Peabody College, index.
Davidson Academy, Nashville, Tenn. 2-15th U.S. College. This lineage makes PCofVU the 15th collegiate institution in the U.S. since Harvard College opened in 1636. There were short closures for lack of funds. When Cumberland College was suspended six years because of financial problems (1816-22), it operated as a grammar school. Philip Lindsley (1786-1855) of Princeton College, N.J., was elected Cumberland College president April 26, 1824. The Univ. of Nashville (1826-75), was closed temporarily in 1850; its medical department began in 1851. The Univ. of Nashville, reopened in 1855, the year President Philip Lindsley died, succeeded by his physician son, John Berrien Lindsley, M.D. (1822-97), as chancellor. Ref.: Ibid. See: persons named. For PCofVU's six predecessor colleges and their nineteen chief administrators, see PCofVU, history of.
Davis, Capt. A Capt. Davis commanded the brig Fame (ship) on which GP, then age 17, and his paternal uncle John Peabody (1768-before 1826) left Newburyport, Mass., May 4, 1812, to open a merchandise store on Bridge St., Georgetown, D.C., May 15, 1812. See: Fame (ship). Newburyport, Mass.
U.S. London Legation Secty. J.C.B. Davis
Davis, John Chandler Bancroft (1822-1907). 1-U.S. Legation Secty., London. J.C.B. Davis, who had contact with GP in London and the U.S., was born in Worcester, Mass. He went to London when his uncle, U.S. historian and statesman George Bancroft (1800-91), was U.S. Minister to Britain during 1846-49. Davis was U.S. Legation Secty., London (1849-54), where he knew and sometimes dined with GP. Davis was later U.S. correspondent of the London Times (1869 and 1871), was U.S. Ass't. Secty. of State (1873-74), represented the U.S. in the Alabama Claims, was U.S. Minister to Germany (1874-77), and was judge of the U.S. Court of Claims (1878-82). He wrote Mr. Sumner, the Alabama Claims, and their Settlement (1878), and other works.
Davis, J.C.B. 2-Dinner with Author Herman Melville. J.C.B. Davis's Harvard classmate was Henry Stevens (1819-86), born in Barnet, Vt., a rare book dealer and resident in London after 1845. Stevens was sometimes GP's agent in book purchases for his Peabody Institute libraries. Davis and Stevens both lived for a time at Morley's Hotel, London. GP sometimes dined with one or both. On Nov. 24, 1849, with J.C.B. Davis present, GP dined at the home of Joshua Bates (1788-1864), Mass.-born but naturalized British subject and head of Baring Brothers, Britain's leading banking firm dealing with U.S. trade and securities. The guest of honor was visiting U.S. author Herman Melville (1819-91). They talked in part about knowing Melville's older brother Gansvoort Melville (1815-46), who had been U.S. Legation Secty. and died three years before in 1846. Ref.: Leyda, p. 338. Melville, p. 47. Parker, W.W., pp. 83, 126. See: persons named.
GP Celebration, S. Danvers, Oct. 9, 1856
Davis, J.C.B. 3-Oct. 9, 1856, Danvers, Mass. J.C.B. Davis was one of the speakers at the Oct. 9, 1856, South Danvers, Mass., public greeting for GP, his first return to the U.S. after nearly 20 years' absence in London. GP's sister Judith Dodge (née Peabody) Russell (1799-1879) had written him not to accept public dinners before the one planned for him by his hometown friends. South Danvers, Mass., people, she wrote, had voted $3,000 for a public welcome for him and they "will be extremely disappointed if they do not do much more than anybody else and do it first. They are tenacious of their right to you." See: Daniels, Judith Dodge (née Peabody) Russell.
Davis, J.C.B. 4-Oct. 9, 1856 Speeches: Danvers, Mass.: GP's Pride in his Firm. Early Oct. 9, 1856, GP left Georgetown, Mass., by carriage with his sister Judith and her son (his nephew) George Peabody Russell (1835-1909), to go to their gaily decorated hometown of South Danvers, Mass. At the Maple St. Church, from which flags flew, GP was greeted by a gun salute, by the committee on arrangements, and by over 20,000 people. Bands played and school children marched by. Alfred Amos Abbott (1820-84) gave the welcoming address. With pride in his London firm, GP told 1,500 dinner guests, including Edward Everett (1794-1865, U.S. Minister to Britain during 1841-45): "Heaven has been pleased to reward my efforts with success, and has permitted me to establish...a house in a great metropolis of England.... I have endeavored...to make it an American house; to furnish it with American journals; to make it a center for American news, and an agreeable place for my American friends visiting England." Ref.: Proceedings...1856, pp. 55-56.
Davis, J.C.B. 5-Oct. 9, 1856, Danvers, Mass.: J.C.B. Davis Speech. After speeches by Mass. Gov. Henry J. Gardner (1818-92) and Edward Everett, J.C.B. Davis, representing N.Y. state, reminded the audience of GP's aid to the Second U.S. Grinnell Expedition's (1853-55) search for lost British Arctic explorer Sir John Franklin (1886-47) and GP's aid to the U.S. exhibitors at the Great Exhibition of 1851 in London (the first world's fair). Davis said: "How proud New York is that its own merchant, Henry Grinnell [1799-1874], joined George Peabody in a gallant venture to search the Arctic seas for Sir John Franklin." Ref.: Ibid.
Davis, J.C.B. 6-Oct. 9, 1856 Danvers, Mass.: J.C.B. Davis Speech Cont'd.: "I have been a guest at Mr. Peabody's dinners and particularly recall the 1851 Independence Day dinner. In the midst of a most discouraging time, when our wares were stored away in corners of the Crystal Palace, Mr. Peabody not only saved the day by refurbishing our area but conceived the plan for a Fourth of July Dinner. The idea and its execution was a timely stroke of genius. "I can never fully describe that occasion. When the hero of Waterloo [Duke of Wellington] and the Napoleon of American commerce [GP] walked arm in arm into Almack's, a marked English respect took place toward America. We owe to Mr. Peabody more than any other man, grateful thanks for cordial friendship from England and the Continent which reflects the English press." [Loud applause]. Ref.: Ibid. See: Abbott, Alfred Amos. Everett, Edward. Gardner, Henry J.
GP-Lincoln Connection
Davis, J.C.B. 7-Lincoln's Assassination Connection. In 1851 while a "Yankee mania" briefly swept Britain, young London barrister Tom Taylor wrote a farcical comedy play, Our American Cousin, which he sold to a publisher for ƒ80 (about $400). Anxious to have it produced on stage, Tom Taylor in 1858 asked J.C.B. Davis to bring the play to the attention of U.S. producer Lester Wallach. Wallach, not interested, suggested that Davis take the play to actress and stage manager Laura Keene (1826-73). She was not interested initially, but needed a fill-in play during costume and casting problems with her scheduled A Mid-Summer Night's Dream. She bought the play for $1,000, staged it, and found it a popular success in the U.S. By coincidence Our American Cousin was presented in Chicago May 20, 1860, at the close of the Republican Party Convention in that city when Abraham Lincoln was nominated as the party's presidential candidate. On April 14, 1865, with the Civil War ended and a burden lifted from his shoulders, Pres. and Mrs. Lincoln went to see Our American Cousin, starring Laura Keene, at the Ford Theater, Washington, D.C., the night he was assassinated. Ref.: Reck.
GP’s Last Illness
Death and Funeral, GP's. 1-Last Illness, U.S. GP, age 74, was often ill during his last four-month U.S. visit, June 8 to Sept. 29, 1869. He saw family and friends, looked after the welfare of his U.S. institutes, and added gifts to them. He looked feeble and his hands trembled when he spoke at the July 14, 1869, Peabody Institute Library dedication, Danvers, Mass. (total gift $100,000). The next day, July 15, 1869, poet Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809-94) read his poem, "George Peabody," before GP and dignitaries at a large reception at the Peabody Institute Library, Peabody, Mass. Two days later, Holmes described GP in a letter to U.S. Minister to Britain John Lothrop Motley (1814-77) as "the Dives who is going to Abraham's bosom and I fear before a great while...." . Oliver Wendell Holmes, Boston, to John Lothrop Motley, Rome, July 18, 1869, quoted in Morse, II, pp. 180-181.
Death & Funeral. 2-Last Illness, U.S. Cont'd. Longtime friend Ohio Episcopal Bishop Charles Pettit McIlvaine (1799-1873), glad that GP was going to rest at the White Sulphur Springs health spa in W.Va. (July 23-Aug. 30, 1869), wrote to GP's philanthropic advisor Robert Charles Winthrop (1809-94): "The White Sulphur Springs will, I hope, be beneficial to our excellent friend; but it can be only a very superficial good. [His] cough is terrible, and I have no expectation of his living a year..." Scheduled to leave NYC for England on the Scotia on Sept. 29, 1869, GP made his last will, had a tomb built, and ordered a sarcophagus for his grave Ref.: Charles Pettit McIlvaine, Cincinnati, to Robert Charles Winthrop, July 22, 1869, quoted in Carus, pp. 298-299.
GP’s Last Will
Death & Funeral. 3-Last Will, Sept. 9, 1869. GP was at the NYC home of long-time business friend Samuel Wetmore (1812-85) when he recorded his last will, Sept. 9, 1869: 1-"My remains shall be sent to Peabody, Massachusetts, U.S.A., and buried in Harmony Grove Cemetery, Salem, Mass. 2-"I give [office clerk] Henry West, 22 Old Broad St., London, ƒ2,200 [$11,000], or to his wife, Louise West, in case of his death. 3-"I give to [office clerk] Thomas Perman of 22 Old Broad St., London, ƒ1,000 [$5,000], or to his wife, Annette Emma Perman, or to her child in case of his and her death. 4-"I give the Trustees of the Peabody Donation Fund of London ƒ150,000 [$750,000] for homes for the poor of London, to be allocated in two sums, ƒ100,000 [$500,000] in 1873 and ƒ50,000 [$250,000] any time after that [$2.5 million total gift]. If it is necessary to add another trustee I suggest the name of Charles Reed [1819-81]." (Refs. at end of Last Will).
Death & Funeral. 4-Last Will, Sept. 9, 1869 Cont'd. 5-"I constitute Sir Curtis Miranda Lampson [1806-85] and Charles Reed executors of my British possessions. George Peabody Russell [1835-1909, nephew], Robert Singleton Peabody [1837-1904, nephew], and Charles W. Chandler [nephew-in-law, d. Feb. 9, 1882] will constitute the executors of my U.S. possessions. It is my wish that both groups always act in harmony. 6-"I give to each British executor ƒ5,000 [$25,000] and to each American executor $5,000. 7-"The residue of my estate now and hereafter due I give to the family trust already established [variously estimated between $1.5 and $4 million]. 8-"This is my last will and testament written in my hand and sealed this 9th day of September 1869." George Peabody. Witnessed by: Sarah T. B[oerum] Wetmore [1820-99] of 15 Waverly Place, New York [wife of Samuel Wetmore, 1812-85]. George F. Tenney, Salem, Mass."
Death & Funeral. 5-Last Will, Sept. 9, 1869, Cont'd. Ref.: (GP's will): New York Tribune, Dec. 14, 1869, p. 1, c. 1. New York Herald, Dec. 14, 1869, p. 7, c. 1; Jan. 5, 1870, p. 7, c. 2 and Apr. 14, 1870, p. 10, c. 3. Peabody Press (Peabody, Mass.), Dec. 8, 1869, p. 2, c. 3. London Times, Dec. 24, 1869, p. 10, c. 3; and April 14, 1870, p. 10, c. 3. Aberdeen Herald (Aberdeen, Scotland), Nov. 13, 1869, p. 3, c. 1. Aberdeen Free Press (Aberdeen, Scotland), Dec. 28, 1869, p. 4, c. 5. Zanesville Daily Signal (Zanesville, Ohio), Nov. 27, 1869, p. 3, c. 2 and Dec. 15, 1869, p. 2, c. 3. Zanesville Daily Courier (Zanesville, Ohio), Dec. 14, 1869, p. 3, c. 5. Salem Register (Salem, Mass.), Jan. 10, 1870, p. 2, c. 3. Salem Observer (Salem, Mass.), Jan. 15, 1870. Manchester Guardian (Manchester, England), Dec. 27, 1869, p. 4, c. 1.
GP’s Last Departure, U.S.
Death & Funeral. 6-Last Departure, U.S. On Sept. 10, 1869, GP in Salem, Mass., for a few days, had a tomb built at Harmony Grove Cemetery and ordered a sarcophagus made of granite to mark his grave. The coffin shaped monument had "Peabody" carved on one side and later had carved on the other side the names and birth and death dates of GP, his parents, brothers, and sisters. Ref (GP's departure NYC, Sept. 29, 1869): Curry-b, p. 53. Sun (Baltimore), Nov. 6, 1869, p., 1, c. 4-5. New York Herald, Sept. 30, 1869, p.7, c. 4; April 14, 1870, p. 10, c. 3. Peabody Press (Peabody, Mass.), Oct. 6, 1869, p. 2, c. 3. Ref.: (GP's sarcophagus): Anglo-American Times (London), Oct. 2, 1869, p. 9, c. 1.
GP’s Last Return, London
Death & Funeral. 7-Last Illness, England. GP reached Queenstown (now Cobh), Ireland, Oct. 8, 1869, and hurried to London. Gravely ill, he rested at the home of long-time business friend Sir Curtis Miranda Lampson (1806-85), 80 Eaton Sq., London. The London Anglo-American Times, Oct. 23, 1869, reported: "Mr. Peabody has been lying all week very ill at 80, Eaton Square, where he had stopped, on his way to the south of France, to consult Dr. Gull [Sir William Withey Gull, M.D., 1816-99]. There has been no improvement, and the latest report was that, though easier on Thursday night, his condition remained the same. Every one, from the Queen downward, has been making inquiries about the eminent American philanthropist." Ref.: Anglo-American Times (London), Oct. 23, 1869, p. 11, c. 3; and Oct. 30, 1869, p. 10, c. 3.
Death & Funeral. 8-U.S. Legation in London Secty. Benjamin Moran. On Oct. 17, 1869, the fast sinking philanthropist sent his friend and sometime agent, Newburyport, Mass.-born London resident genealogist Horatio Gates Somerby (1805-72), to ask U.S. Legation in London Secty. Benjamin Moran (1820-86) to call on him. Moran's journal entry (Oct. 27, 1869): "Horatio G. Somerby came and said Mr. Peabody wished to see me. I promised to call and sent the old man my regards. But Somerby did not know how ill the old man is. The Times of to-day says he is in a dangerous state and Mr. Motley [John Lothrop, 1814-77] tells me he is really dying. A few hours must close his earthly career. Considering that Mr. Somerby is Peabody's private Secretary it is very, very odd that he did not know of his dangerous state.... I afterwards called at Mr. Peabody's and found him better." Ref.: Benjamin Moran's journal, Wed., Oct. 27, 1869, Library of Congress Ms. See: Moran, Benjamin.
GP & Queen Victoria
Death & Funeral. 9-Queen Victoria Invited GP to Visit Windsor Castle. After learning of GP's return to London and before she knew of his grave condition, Queen Victoria asked her privy councilor Arthur Helps (1813-75) to invite GP to visit her at Windsor Castle. Helps transmitted the Queen's message to Sir Curtis Lampson on Oct. 30: "Regarding Mr. Peabody, the Queen thinks the best way would be for her to ask him down to Windsor for one or two nights, where he could rest--and need not come to dinner, or any meals if he feels unequal to it; but where she could see him quietly at any time of the day most convenient to him." Ref.: below.
Death & Funeral. 10-Queen Victoria's Invitation Sent to Lampson. Helps added in his cover letter to Lampson: "You will be the best judge whether this should be mentioned to Mr. Peabody, and, if you think it should, will doubtless choose a favorable time for doing so." Helps concluded with: "Hoping to hear a better account of our good friend's health today...." Ref.: Arthur Helps to Curtis Miranda Lampson, Oct. 30, 1869, Royal Archives, Q. 11/78, Windsor Castle. Queen's invitation mentioned in London Times, Oct. 30, 1869, p. 8, c. 2. New York Tribune, Nov. 12, 1869, p. 1, c. 1. London Sun, Oct. 30, 1869, p. 2, c. 6. See persons named.
GP’s Last Health Reports
Death & Funeral. 11-Press Health Reports, 1869. The English press carried daily reports on GP's condition: The London Times, Oct. 27, 1869, p. 7, c. 3, announced that GP was dangerously ill. Edinburgh Scotsman, Oct. 28, p. 8: "Mr. Peabody, who was reported seriously ill at Eaton Square, is said to be slightly better according to the latest report although he continues very weak." London Times, Oct. 29, p. 7, c. 2: "George Peabody is rather more comfortable but still continues seriously ill." Edinburgh Scotsman, Oct. 29, p. 8: "At a late hour on Wednesday night [Oct. 27] the answer to inquiries was that Mr. Peabody had somewhat rallied, but that no hopes were entertained of his recovery. Dr. [William Withey] Gull [M.D., 1816-99] and Mr. [William H.] Covey [medical attendant] are among the medical attendants who have visited the great philanthropist since his return from America a little more than a fortnight ago."
Death & Funeral. 12-Press Health Reports, 1869 Cont'd. London Times, Oct 30, p. 9, c. 4: "Mr. Peabody is rather stronger this evening." Edinburgh Scotsman, Nov. 1, p. 3: "He had a good night, Friday night, and was better this morning." London Sun, Nov. 1, p. 3, c. 5: "Mr. Peabody passed a quiet night and is much the same as yesterday." Manchester Guardian, Nov. 2, p. 5, c. 6: "Slight improvement Sunday night." Edinburgh Scotsman, Nov. 3, p. 3: "Mr. Peabody is in a precarious state and was not well Monday night." London Times, Nov. 4, p. 7, c. 3: "Mr. Peabody remains very weak but no important change has occurred during the last two days." Edinburgh Scotsman, Nov. 3, p. 3, and Manchester Guardian, Nov. 3, p. 5, c. 3: "Mr. Peabody is in a very precarious state..."
GP Deathbed Account by R. C. Winthrop
Death & Funeral. 13-Deathbed Account by Winthrop. GP died Thurs., Nov. 4, 1869, 11:30 p.m. GP's philanthropic advisor and PEF trustee Pres. Robert Charles Winthrop reported this first of three deathbed accounts in his Feb. 8, 1870, eulogy at GP's final funeral service, South Congregational Church, Peabody, Mass. Said Winthrop: "I cannot...release you until I have alluded...to an incident of the last days, and almost the last hours, of this noble life, which has come to me from a source which cannot be questioned [Ohio's Episcopal Bishop Charles Pettit McIlvaine, below]. While he was lying, seemingly unconscious, on his death-bed in London, at the house of his kind friend, Sir Curtis Lampson, and when all direct communication with him had been for a time suspended, it was mentioned aloud in his presence, in a manner, and with a purpose to test his consciousness, that a highly valued acquaintance had called to see him; but he took no notice...." Ref.: (Deathbed-Winthrop): Winthrop-a, III, p. 47. Winthrop-b, pp. 21-22. New York Time, Feb. 9, 1870, p. 1, c. 4-7.
Death & Funeral. 14-Deathbed Account by Winthrop Cont'd. "Not long afterwards, it was stated in a tone loud enough for him to hear, that the Queen herself had sent a special telegram of inquiry and sympathy; but even that failed to arouse him. "Once more, at no long interval, it was remarked, that a faithful minister of the Gospel, with whom he once made a voyage to America, was at the door; and his attention was instantly attracted [London clergyman Dr. Thomas Nolan, 1809-82, mentioned in C.P. McIlvaine's deathbed account below]. "The 'good man,' as he called him with his latest breath, was received by him, and prayed with him, more than once. 'It is a great mystery,' he feebly observed, 'but I shall know all soon'; while his repeated Amens gave audible and abundant evidence that those prayers were not lost upon his ear or upon his heart." Refs. below.
Death & Funeral. 15-Deathbed Account by Winthrop Cont'd. Robert Charles Winthrop's Eulogy is also the source for the statement that among GP's last words were: "Danvers, Danvers, don't forget, Danvers." Ref.: ("Danvers, Danvers, don't forget, Danvers"): Winthrop-b, p. 21. Also quoted in: PEF-c, Proceedings, I, p. 164. Report of the Centennial Celebration of the Birth of George Peabody, p. 64. White, Alden P., p. 13. Semicentennial of GPCFT, p. 29. See: Winthrop, Robert Charles.
Deathbed Account of GP by C. P. McIlvaine
Death & Funeral. 16-Deathbed Account by McIlvaine. Winthrop's account of GP's death came from Ohio's Episcopal Bishop Charles Pettit McIlvaine, GP's long-time intimate friend, chief advisor on the March 12, 1862, Peabody Homes of London gift, and a PEF trustee. McIlvaine sent to Winthrop, Nov. 20, 1869, this deathbed account as it came from his daughter, visiting the dying GP: "I have just received another letter from my daughter in London, giving further particulars of Mr. Peabody's death. "After the visit mentioned in her former letter, when Mr. Peabody took no notice of anybody, he sent several times for his confidential man of business [possibly Simon Winter, GP's valet the last month of his life] who came and stayed for some time with him; but he never roused enough to tell him what he wanted. Once in the middle of the night he asked the nurse if he was dying. The nurse answered that he was very ill indeed. He said he knew it, and was prepared. Sir Curtis Lampson told him he knew he would desire to know the...truth...that he was dying." Ref.: (Deathbed-McIlvaine): C.P. McIlvaine to R.C. Winthrop, Nov. 20, 1869, quoted in Carus, ed., pp. 294-296.
Death & Funeral. 17-Deathbed Account by McIlvaine Cont'd.: "The clergyman mentioned in the previous letter was Dr. [Thomas] Nolan, one of the London Church clergy.... He represented the British and Foreign Bible Society, at the same anniversary of the American Bible Society at which you spoke. A very earnest, good man, and an old friend of mine. He called several times, and once more Mr. Peabody could see him. And when Dr. Nolan prayed, he responded several times, Amen; but he could never say much, and it was at all times difficult to understand him. The last time Dr. Nolan saw him was on Tuesday the 2nd, or Wednesday, 3rd of October. He was heard to say to himself, 'Great mystery'; and after some time adding--'but I shall know all soon,' showing that his mind was consciously working, though he seemed unconscious." Ref.: Ibid. See: Nolan, Thomas [1809-82, vicar, St. Peter’s, Regent Sq., London, 1857-73].
Death & Funeral. 18-Deathbed Account by McIlvaine Cont'd.: "He knew the members of the Lampson family at times. My daughter says they were most faithful in their attentions; and as they thought they perceived that there was something he wanted to communicate, they always had one of the family with him, besides the nurse. My daughter was with him three times. The first time, as before mentioned, he was unconscious. 'The second time' (I now use her own words) 'I sat by him some time. At last he put out his hand and touched me, saying, 'I thought there was some one here.' I leaned down by him and said, 'Yes, it is N. McIlvaine'; and he knew me perfectly, and kissed me. I said, 'I am so glad you know me. Shall I give your love to my father?' He said, 'Yes.' I said, 'I have written.' Then he again became unconscious. After a time, I stooped down and kissed his forehead, and said, 'Good-bye,' when he again roused up and kissed me, evidently thinking he was in America, and said, 'How is your Mother?' In a moment he was gone again. I saw him again, the night before he died. But he was perfectly unconscious and unable to speak. His tongue lost its power for some time before he died. He suffered very little at last." Bishop McIlvaine's letter ended: "These are sad details of our departed friend. But they have some light in them. I am so glad such a man as Dr. Nolan was with him.…" Ref.: Ibid.
Deathbed Account of GP: J. L. Motley to U.S. Secty. of State Fish
Death & Funeral. 19-Deathbed Account by Motley to U.S. Secty. of State Fish. The third death account is in U.S. Minister to Britain John Lothrop Motley's official dispatch to U.S. Secty. of State Hamilton Fish (1809-93) on Nov. 6, 1869: "It is with deep regret that I inform you of the death of that good benefactor to humanity, George Peabody. "The event took place on the night before last, the 4th inst. at half past 11 o'clock. Mr. Peabody, as you are aware, left the United States in broken health. "For a few days after reaching London he was able to be taken down stairs daily to the family circle of Sir Curtis Lampson, No. 80 Eaton Square, at whose house he was residing and where he was tenderly cared for during his last illness but his strength soon failed him. He lingered some few days in a condition which enabled him occasionally while lying in his bed to receive visits from a friend or two. It was my privilege to see him thus two or three times." Ref.: John Lothrop Motley to Hamilton Fish, Nov. 6, 1869, Dispatch No. 142, "Dispatches from United States Minister, Great Britain," National Archives, Washington, D.C.
Death & Funeral. 20-Deathbed Account by Motley to U.S. Secty. of State Fish Cont'd.: "On the last occasion, which was about a fortnight before his death, he seemed in good spirits and was evidently encouraged about his health. He conversed fluently and in a most interesting manner about the great work of his life--his vast scheme for benefiting those needing aid in England and America--and narrated the way in which the project first grew up in his mind and generally developed itself into the wide proportions which it had at last assumed." Ref.: Ibid.
Death & Funeral. 21-Deathbed Account by Motley to U.S. Secty. of State Fish Cont'd.: "I remarked to him that it must make him happy, lying there on his sickbed, to think of the immense benefits which he had conferred on the poor of two great countries, not only in his generation, but so far as we could judge as long as the two nations should exist. "He observed with a placid smile that it made him very happy to think of it. He was sure that the institutions founded by him would do much good." Ref.: Ibid.
Death & Funeral. 22-Deathbed Account by Motley to U.S. Secty. of State Fish Cont'd.: "Very soon after this interview Mr. Peabody became too weak to receive visits except from the family of Sir Curtis Lampson, the physicians and a clergyman. Bulletins of his condition were published regularly in the journals and inquiries as to his health were made regularly by the Sovereign of the country and by persons of all classes. "During the last few days of his life, he was almost entirely unconscious and he passed away at last without pain and without a struggle." Ref.: Ibid.
Deathbed Account: Motley to Bismarck
Death & Funeral. 23-Deathbed Account by Motley to Count von Bismarck. U.S. Minister Motley also described GP's death in a Nov. 7, 1869, letter to German statesman Count von Bismarck (Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck-Schönhausen, 1815-98): "Our great philanthropist George Peabody is just dead. I knew him well and saw him several times during his last illness. It made him happy, he said, as he lay on his bed, to think that he had done some good to his fellow-creatures. "I suppose no man in human history ever gave away so much money. "At least two millions of pounds sterling, and in cash, he bestowed on great and well-regulated charities, founding institutions in England and America which will do good so long as either nation exists. "He has never married, has no children, but he has made a large number of nephews and nieces rich. He leaves behind him (after giving away so much), I dare say, about half a million sterling." Ref.: (Motley to Bismarck): Nov. 7, 1869, quoted in Motley, III, p. 233.
GP’s Death Certificate
Death & Funeral. 24-Death Certificate. GP's death certificate information in the General Registration Office, Somerset House, London, was supplied by Simon Winter, mentioned in funeral news accounts as GP's valet during GP's last weeks. GP's death certificate read in part: "Registration District, Saint George Hanover Square. 1869. Death in the District of Belgrave in the County of Middlesex. No. 277. (1). When and where died. Fourth November 1869. 80 Eaton Square. (2). Name and surname. George Peabody. (3). Sex. Male. (4). Age. 74 years. (5). Rank or profession. Gentleman. (6). Cause of death. Gout Some months Exhaustion Certified. (7). Signature, description and residence of informant. Simon Winter Present at the Death 80 Eaton Square Pimlico. (8) When registered. Sixth November 1869...." Ref.: (GP's death certificate): From certified copy of the entry of death secured by authors from the General Registration Office, Somerset House, London, Oct. 7, 1954.
Death & Funeral. 25-Demand for Public Honors. There was much public interest in GP's death. The London Daily News printed on Nov. 8: "We have received a large number of letters, urging that the honours of a public funeral are due to the late Mr. Peabody's memory." Ref.: (Public honors for GP): London Daily News, Nov. 8, 1869, p. 5, c. 3.
Death & Funeral. 26-Westminster Abbey Offered. The Dean of Westminster Abbey, Arthur Penrhyn Stanley (1815-81), also moved to honor GP publicly, was in Naples, Italy, Nov. 5, 1869, when he read of GP's death. Years later he recorded: "The next funeral of which I was cognizant was the only one that I made an exception to my general rule of not proposing anything as from myself, and it was then done under very peculiar circumstances. I was in Naples, and saw in the public papers that George Peabody had died. Being absent, considering that he was a foreigner, and at the same time, by reason of his benefactions to the City of London, [the word 'fully' followed but was scratched out] entitled to a burial in Westminster Abbey, I telegraphed to express my wishes that his interment there should take place. Accordingly it was so arranged." Ref.: Westminster Abbey, "Recollections by Dean Stanley of Funerals in Westminster Abbey 1865-1881," pp. 21-22.
Why Such Funeral Honors?
Death & Funeral. 27-Why Such Funeral Honors? CSS Alabama. GP's 96-day transatlantic funeral was unprecedented (overview given below). The pomp and circumstance between his death in London, Nov. 4, 1869, and burial in Harmony Grove Cemetery, Salem, Mass., Feb. 8, 1870, came from attempts to reconcile serious post-Civil War U.S.-British tensions. GP died during U.S.-British tension over the Alabama Claims. CSS Alabama was a notorious British-built Confederate raider which sank 64 northern cargo ships during 1862-64. See: Alabama Claims. Death & Funeral. 189-Final Thought (below).
Alabama Claims
Death & Funeral. 28-Why Such Funeral Honors? Alabama Cont'd. Without a navy and with its southern ports blockaded by the North, Confederate agents evaded the blockade, went to England, secretly bought British-built ships, armed them as Confederate raiders, renamed them Alabama, Florida, Shenandoah, and others, which sank northern ships and cost northern lives and treasure. Britain, officially neutral in the U.S. Civil War, was continually reminded of its breaches of neutrality by U.S. Minister to Britain Charles Francis Adams (1807-86) when he had intelligence of Confederate purchases of British built ships. U.S. demand for reparations for damages from British-built raiders lasted for at least eight years (1864-72). Ref.: Ibid.
Death & Funeral. 29-Why Such Funeral Honors? Alabama Cont'd. About 1868 GP was suggested but being old and ill was not chosen as an arbiter in the reparation dispute which was resolved at a Geneva international tribunal in 1871-72. The $15.5 million indemnity which Britain paid the U.S. was negotiated by former U.S. Minister Charles Francis Adams for the U.S., British jurist Alexander James Edmund Cockburn (1802-80) for Britain, and three others from neutral countries. At GP's death, Nov. 4, 1869, this Alabama Claims controversy was unresolved and tense. The U.S. was angry. Britain was resentful. Ref.: Ibid.
Death & Funeral. 30-Why Such Funeral Honors? British Cotton Mills Hurt. Though officially neutral in the U.S. Civil War, the British upper class sympathized with the U.S. southern aristocracy. The Union blockade of southern ports cut off raw cotton needed by British cotton mills. Over half of the 534,000 British cotton mill workers lost their jobs. Of those still working less than one fourth worked full time. Historian Shelby Foote found that two million British jobs were lost in cotton mill and related industries. A desire to defuse angers over the Alabama Claims was one reason British officials first, and then U.S. officials, outdid each other in unusual homage to GP during his transatlantic funeral. Ref.: Ibid. See: Death & Funeral. 189-Final Thought (below).
Trent Affair
Death & Funeral. 31-Why Such Funeral Honors? Trent. Another reason for GP's unusual funeral honors was to lessen resentment over the still rankling Nov. 8, 1861, Trent Affair. On the stormy night of Oct. 11, 1861, four Confederate emissaries evaded the Union blockade at Charleston, S.C., went by ship to Havana, Cuba, and there boarded the British mail ship Trent, bound for Southampton, England. The Confederate emissaries sought aid and arms from Britain and France. On Nov. 8, 1861, the Trent was illegally stopped in the Bahama Channel, West Indies, by USS San Jacinto's Capt. Charles Wilkes (1798-1877). Confederates James Murray Mason (1798-1871, from Va.), John Slidell (1793-1871, from La.), and their male secretaries were forcibly removed and imprisoned in Boston harbor's Fort Warren Prison. Anticipating war with the U.S., Britain sent 8,000 troops to Canada. But U.S. jingoism subsided. Pres. Abraham Lincoln reportedly told his cabinet, "one war at a time," got the cabinet on Dec. 26, 1861, to disavow the illegal seizure and to release the Confederate prisoners on Jan. 1, 1862. See: Trent Affair.
Death & Funeral. 32-GP and the Trent Affair. GP was indirectly and directly affected by the Trent Affair, which delayed until March 12, 1862, public announcement of his gift of Peabody homes for London's working poor (total gift $2.5 million). Also, GP's longtime business friend William Wilson Corcoran's (1798-1888) only child, a daughter, was married to George Eustice (1828-72) of La., secretary to and arrested with Confederate emissary John Slidell. Mrs. Louise Morris (née Corcoran) Eustice was on the Trent when it landed in Liverpool, England. GP's partner Junius Spencer Morgan (1813-90) visited her to see after her welfare. Ref.: Ibid. See Peabody Homes of London.
Death & Funeral. 33-GP Funeral Honors to Soften U.S.-British Angers. Softening near war U.S.-British tension was thus behind the funeral honors for GP by Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone (1809-98) and other officials. British funeral honors also reflected sincere appreciation for the Peabody apartments for London's working poor. Many marveled that GP, an American, would give that kind of gift in that large amount to a city and country not his own. Britons also valued GP's two decades of efforts to improve U.S.-British relations. Ref.: Ibid.
GP’s Funeral Overview
Death & Funeral. 34-Funeral Honors Overview. British and U.S. officials extended unprecedented transatlantic funeral honors, which included: a-A Westminster Abbey funeral service (Nov. 12, 1869) and temporary burial there for 30 days (Nov. 12-Dec. 11, 1869). b-British cabinet decision (Nov. 10, 1869) to return GP's remains for burial in the U.S. on HMS Monarch, Britain's newest and largest warship, repainted slate gray above the water line, with a specially built mortuary chapel. c-U.S. government decision (between Nov. 12-15, 1869) to send the corvette USS Plymouth from Marseilles, France, to accompany HMS Monarch to the U.S. d-Transfer (Dec. 11, 1869) of GP's remains from Westminster Abbey, London, on a special funeral train to Portsmouth dock, impressive ceremonies in the transfer of remains from Portsmouth dock to the Monarch, specially outfitted as a funeral vessel. e-The transatlantic crossing of HMS Monarch and the USS Plymouth (Dec. 21, 1869-Jan. 25, 1870) from Spithead near Portsmouth, past Ushant, France, to Madeira island off Portugal, to Bermuda, and north to Portland, Me.
Death & Funeral. 35-Funeral Honors Overview Cont'd. f-The U.S. Navy's decision (Jan. 14, 1870) to place Adm. David Glasgow Farragut (1801-70) in command of a U.S. naval flotilla to meet the Monarch in Portland harbor, Me. (Jan. 25, 1870). g-The Monarch captain's request, on behalf of Queen Victoria, that the coffin remain aboard for two days as a final mark of respect, while Portlanders viewed the coffin in a somberly decorated mortuary chapel (Jan. 27-28, 1870). h-Lying in state of GP's remains in Portland City Hall (Jan. 29-Feb. 1, 1870). i-A special funeral train from Portland, Me., to Peabody, Mass (Feb. 1, 1870). j-Lying in state of GP's remains at the Peabody Institute Library (Feb. 1-8, 1870). k-Robert Charles Winthrop's funeral eulogy at the South Congregational Church, Peabody, Mass., attended by several governors, mayors, Queen Victoria's son Prince Arthur, and other notables (Feb. 8, 1870). L--Final burial ceremony at Harmony Grove Cemetery, Salem, Mass. (Feb. 8, 1870).
U.S. Legation in London Secty. Benjamin Moran
Death & Funeral. 36-Moran on Escalating Funeral Plans. U.S. Legation in London Secty. Benjamin Moran's journal entries show the escalating British-U.S. funeral honors. Moran recorded (Nov. 6, 1869): "Sir Curtis Lampson came and asked me if it were possible to have a funeral service performed here over Mr. Peabody's remains in view of the fact that they are to be conveyed to the United States and I said yes, instancing...particulars in the case of Horatio G. Ward [b.1810?-died May 1868 ] and Mr. Brown[e], better known as Artemus Ward [Charles Farrar Browne, 1834-67, U.S. humorist writer-lecturer using the name Artemus Ward, who died in London].... "These cases seemed to satisfy him and no doubt some funeral service will be performed here, probably in Westminster Abbey."
Death & Funeral. 37-Moran on Escalating Funeral Plans Cont'd. (Moran Nov. 8): "Sir Curtis Lampson [reported that] The Dean and Chapter of Westminster Abbey has asked that Mr. Peabody be buried in the Abbey. This can hardly be assented to: But a funeral service will no doubt take place there, and has been fixed for Friday, inst., at 1 o'clock [Nov. 12, 1869]." Ref.: (Lampson asked Moran about London funeral service and Westminster Abbey offer): Benjamin Moran's journal, Nov. 6 and 8, 1869, Library of Congress Ms.
PM Gladstone & GP
Death & Funeral. 38-Royal Navy Vessel as Funeral Ship: PM Gladstone. The British cabinet chaired by PM William Ewart Gladstone met at 2:00 P.M., Nov. 10, 1869, and decided to offer a Royal Navy ship to return GP's remains. By letter that day Gladstone so informed Curtis Miranda Lampson in whose home GP died. GP funeral researcher Allen Howard Welch's article (cited where it sheds new light on GP funeral) stated that Queen Victoria first suggested use of a Royal Naval ship to return GP's remains. Welch wrote: "The Queen, in fact, was personally grieved, and it was her own request that a man-of-war be employed to return Peabody to his homeland." Ref.: (Queen Victoria first suggested returning GP's remains on a Royal Navy ship): Welch, pp. 116-137, who cited as reference: Cabinet Minutes (1869), Gladstone Papers, British Museum Additional MSS. 44463, p. 113. Clowes, Vol. VII, p. 227. London Times, Nov. 15, 1869, p. 7.
Death & Funeral. 39-Royal Navy Vessel as Funeral Ship: PM Gladstone Cont'd. The night before, Nov. 9, 1869, in a major speech at the Lord Mayor's Day banquet, Gladstone referred to British-U.S. difficulties and then mentioned GP's death: "You will know that I refer to the death of Mr. Peabody, a man whose splendid benefactions...taught us in this commercial age...the most noble and needful of all lessons--...how a man can be the master of his wealth instead of its slave [cheers]. And, my Lord Mayor, most touching it is to know, as I have learnt, that while, perhaps, some might think he had been unhappy in dying in a foreign land, yet so were his affections divided between the land of his birth and the home of his early ancestors, that...his [wish] has been realized--that he might be buried in America, [and] that it might please God to ordain that he should die in England [cheers]. My Lord Mayor, with the country of Mr. Peabody we are not likely to quarrel [loud cheers, italics added]." Ref.: (Gladstone's Nov. 9, 1869, speech): London Times, Nov. 10, 1869, p. 5, c. 5. [Commentary on Gladstone's Nov. 9, 1869, speech on GP] Saturday Review of Politics, Literature and Art, Vol. 28, No. 733 (Nov. 13, 1869), p. 621. Manchester Guardian, Nov. 25, 1869, p. 7, c. 4.
Softening Alabama Claims Anger
Death & Funeral. 40-Softening Alabama Claims Angers. U.S. Minister to Britain J.L. Motley sent the full London Times account of Gladstone's Nov. 9, 1869, speech to U.S. Secty. of State Hamilton Fish. Gladstone's conciliatory speech led many to believe in an early settlement of Alabama Claims difficulties. The Manchester Guardian wrote: "The New York Herald and other prominent journals regard Mr. Gladstone's speech at the Lord Mayor's banquet as indicating a probably early satisfactory settlement of the Alabama Claims." Ref.: Manchester Guardian, Nov. 26, 1869, p. 3, c. 2.
Death & Funeral. 41-Softening Alabama Claims Angers Cont'd. The military journal, Army and Navy Gazette, reported: "Private telegrams have been received in London from New York, stating that the honour done to the remains of the late Mr. Peabody, and to the fact that our Government having conveyed his body to America in a ship of war, has had a great effect on the States, and has gone far towards doing away with the ill-feeling caused by the Alabama difficulties. There is a story going about to the effect that the special correspondent in London of a well known American paper lately telegraphed to ask his employers what line he should take upon the Alabama question. The reply, through the cable, was, 'Let the matter drop; it's played out.'" Ref.: (Motley sent Gladstone's speech to Fish): Nov. 11, 1869, "Dispatches from United Ministers, Great Britain," Dispatch No. 148, National Archives. Ref.: Army and Navy Gazette (London), Dec. 18, 1869, p. 802, c. 2.
Death & Funeral. 42-Moran Again. Benjamin Moran's journal entry (Nov. 9, 1869): "Sir Curtis Lampson called early to-day about the funeral ceremonies over Mr. Peabody in Westminster Abbey.... "At his own request Mr. Gladstone is to be present in the Abbey in his capacity of Prime Minister.... He spoke to Sir Curtis Lampson about sending the remains home in a ship of war and asked [if U.S. Minister to England] Mr. Motley would approve, saying that he might bring the subject officially to his notice. The suggestion is no doubt from the Queen; but Mr. Motley can give no opinion one way or another...and has decided after consulting with me to refer the question...to the Govt. at Washington for their instructions. It [use of a royal vessel] is without precedent, and as Mr. Peabody was a copperhead and never gave a cent to the institutions founded for the widows and orphans of the war, and moreover is a private citizen--it is placing the Minister in embarrassing circumstances...." Ref.: (Lampson called on Moran): Benjamin Moran's journal entry, Nov. 6, 1869, Moran Papers, Library of Congress Ms. Ref.: (Gladstone's offer of HMS Monarch): Moran's journal entry, Nov. 9, 1869, Library of Congress Ms. Ref.: (Offer of Westminster Abbey): Moran's journal entry, Nov. 8, 1869, Library of Congress Ms.
Embalming of GP’s Remains
Death & Funeral. 43-Embalming. Moran recorded hearing how GP's remains had been embalmed: "Dr. [William Withey] Gull, Peabody's chief physician, told me today that he had the body embalmed by injecting arsenic into the veins and tanning, and that the result was very successful. The features will be recognizable for years." The Lancet, a British medical journal, published a detailed account of how GP's remains were embalmed: "The preservation of the remains of the late Mr. Peabody was entrusted to the hands of Dr. Pavy [Frederick William Pavy, 1829-1911, of Guy's Hospital, London]. The process carried out consisted in injecting the whole body through the arteries with a strong solution of arsenic, containing also some bichloride of mercury. Twenty-four hours afterwards another liquid, consisting of a saturated solution of tannic acid was thrown in, with the view of effecting the gradual conversion of the gelatinous structures into the tannogelatine, or the basis of leather." Ref.: Moran's journal entry, Nov. 12, 1869, Library of Congress Ms.
Death & Funeral. 44-Embalming Cont'd. "None of the viscera were removed or disturbed; and before the opening into the chest, required for the injection practiced through the aorta, was closed, an arsenical paste, or rather cream, consisting of arsenic, camphor, and spirit, was introduced into the thoracic cavity, and also through an opening in the diaphragm into the cavity of the abdomen, and freely distributed about. Death had taken place about two-and-a-half days before the process was commenced, and decomposition had set in so as to produce great distension of the abdomen; but the process was found to check all this, and when completed all signs of a tendency to decomposition were removed. We may add that under the silk shroud and upon the floor of the coffin there was placed a bed of well-burnt animal charcoal." Ref.: Lancet, p. 33. Also quoted in Dundee Courier and Argus (Dundee, Scotland), Dec. 6, 1869, p. 3, c. 4. For the embalming, Dr. Frederick William Pavy of Guy's Hospital, London, was paid £31 and ten shillings (about $157.50), in Peabody Papers, PEM, Salem, Mass. See: Pavy, Frederick William.
Benjamin Moran on GP’s Westminster Abbey Funeral
Death & Funeral. 45-Moran on W.A. Funeral Service. Moran's private journal entries on GP since 1857 had invariably been critical. But in his entry on GP's Westminster Abbey funeral service Moran's better nature emerged. His account follows in full for its detail and rare eloquence. He wrote (Nov. 12): "At about 12 to-day Mr. Motley and I arrived in his carriage at Sir Curtis Lampson's, 80 Eaton Square, where we met Sir Curtis [Miranda Lampson] and his three sons, J.S. Morgan, Russell Sturgis, Mr. [U.S. Consul in London] F.[reeman] H.[arlow] Morse [1807-91], Mr. [U.S. Vice Consul in London Joshua] Nunn, Drs. Gull and Covey, Horatio G. Somerby, and several other gentlemen, who were to act as mourners at the funeral of Mr. George Peabody in Westminster Abbey. Mr. Charles Reed [1819-81], M.P., did not reach the house on time, but we took him up in the street. Mr. Motley, Sir Curtis, Mr. Reed and I were in the first carriage. Two royal carriages followed those of the mourners and the Minister's carriages were immediately behind that of the executors. The cortege of private carriages was very long. We left the house at about 1/4 to 1 and arrived at the Abbey in about half an hour, the streets all the way being crowded with spectators, the mass evidently being workingmen of the better class." Ref.: Moran's journal entry Nov. 12, 1869, Moran's Papers, Library of Congress Ms.
Death & Funeral. 46-Moran on W.A. Funeral Service Cont'd. "The day proved fine. Mr. Motley and I followed closely to the coffin and entered the grand old Abbey from the West cloister, the procession taking a circuitous course into the Nave and then passing between crowds in solemn black. The sun's rays glanced in yellow beams over the grey stone of the aisles and improved the scene. We followed into the choir where many spectators were assembled, and the body was deposited under the lantern, with a wreath of white camellias on the coffin. I noticed...Mr. Gladstone, Lord Clarendon, Mr. Arthur Helps, the Lord Mayor and Sheriffs...in...the chancel...just in front of the tomb of Henry the Fifth. As we entered the Nave chanting to the organ began, and soon after the body entered the choir the burial service was proceeded with in all the solemnity peculiar to it. As the voices of the choristers rang out, my eyes involuntarily went with them up to the carved ceiling and then glanced over the choir, down the vaulted nave, across which a golden sunlight was streaming like a halo around the head of a Saint." Ref.: Ibid. See: persons named.
Death & Funeral. 47-Moran on W.A. Funeral Service Cont'd. "The scene was sacred. Beholding it as I did--being one of the actors--it was impressive.... I thought of Peabody as I stood by his coffin and heard the priests chanting over his remains, and...mentally remarked that I could now forget that I had ever warred with the dust before me. And then I reflected on the marvelous career of the man, his early life, his penurious habits, his vast fortune, his magnificent charity; and the honor that was then being paid to his memory by the Queen of England in the place of sepulcher of twenty English Kings." Ref.: Ibid.
Death & Funeral. 48-Moran on W.A. Funeral Service Cont'd. "The coffin was borne back through the choir to the grave near the great west door in the nave; and here the rest of the ceremony took place in a vast crowd of spectators. The grand music of Purcell [Henry Purcell, 1659-95, English composer] and Croft [William Croft, 1678-1727, English composer] was sweetly sung by deep voiced men and silvery voiced boys, the heavy tones of the organ blending with the human music and all rising like incense over the benevolent man's grave. The Prime Minister of England and the United States Minister stood near the head participating in the ceremony, while Mrs. Motley, Lady Lampson, Mrs. Morgan, and other American ladies were grouped at the foot. 'Ashes to ashes,' said the priest, an anthem was sung, and the service was at an end--George Peabody having received burial in Westminster Abbey, an honor coveted by nobles and not always granted kings. "A wreath of immortelles [everlasting] was thrown into the lap of Peabody's statue the other day, and loud cries were made to call the new street in the city from the Bank [of England] to Blackfriars Bridge after him...." Ref.: Ibid. See: persons named.
Reporter on GP’s Westminster Abbey Funeral
Death & Funeral. 49-Reporter on W.A. Funeral Service. The London reporter for the New York Times also recorded his impressions of the Nov. 12, 1869, GP Westminster Abbey funeral service: "My trans-Atlantic heart beat...quicker at the thought of clergy and nobility, Prime Minister and people, of this great realm gathered to lay [GP] among sleeping Kings and statesmen. The crowd outside was, if possible, more interesting than that within. The gaunt, famished London poor were gathered in thousands to testify their respect for the foreigner who has done more than any Englishman for their class, and whose last will contains an additional bequest to them of £150,000." Ref.: New York Times, Nov. 26, 1869, p. 2, c. 3.
Sermon at GP’s Westminster Abbey Funeral
Death & Funeral. 50-Bishop of London Sermon, W.A., Sunday, Nov. 14, 1869. Many sermons on GP were preached on Sunday, Nov. 14, 1869, following the Westminster Abbey Friday, Nov. 12, 1869, GP funeral service. Westminster Abbey's Dean Stanley recalled years later: "On the subsequent Sunday, by an arrangement which has since become frequent, but which had not then been fully established, an external preacher took my place. I forget by whose management it came about, but it was most appropriate. It was the Bishop of London [Rt. Hon. & Rt. Rev. John Jackson, 1811-85] who on that occasion only,--as being the Bishop in whose diocese the benefactions had been made, and yet who, on the other hand, by his peculiar position, was the one Bishop who never officiates in the Abbey—preached the sermon…." Ref.: [Unpublished]: Westminster Abbey, "Recollections by Dean Stanley of Funerals in Westminster Abbey 1865-1881," pp. 21-22. (Rt. Hon. & Rt. Rev. John Jackson): "Jackson, John."
Death & Funeral. 51- Bishop of London's Sermon, W.A., Sunday, Nov. 14, 1869, Cont'd. Taking his text from Hebrews 6:11, the Bishop of London, addressing the largest Abbey Sunday congregation to that time, said in part: "The representatives of two governments paid him homage. No man is recorded in England's history more remarkable for his gifts to mankind than George Peabody. He worked not only for himself but for others and for God. He was self-made, simple in his habits, with no ambition for rank or power His glory was in benefiting mankind. Henceforth the name George Peabody will belong equally to his native land and his adopted country, binding together their peoples who have common origin, language, and laws. No untitled commoner ever drew round his grave so large a concourse of sincere mourners as George Peabody…. His name will be the birthright of two great nations…." Ref.: New York Times, Nov. 27, 1869, p. 1, c. 6-7. Manchester Guardian (Manchester, England), Nov. 15, 1869, p. 2, c. 7. Herts Advertiser and St. Albans Times (St. Albans, England), Nov. 20, 1869, p. 3, c. 1-2. Brighton Daily News (Brighton, England), Nov. 15, 1869, p. 5, c. 4. London's News of the World, Nov. 20, 1869, p. 6, c. 2-4.
Death & Funeral. 52-Episcopal Bishop of Ohio C.P. McIlvaine's Reaction. Widely read U.S. press reports of the Westminster Abbey funeral service and of the Bishop of London's sermon led Episcopal Bishop of Ohio Charles Pettit McIlvaine to write to a clergy friend: "The honours paid the memory of my dear old friend, Mr. Peabody, especially the funeral solemnities in Westminster Abbey by order of the Queen, and the sermon by the Bishop of London, are very gratifying to us Americans. He deserves them…." Ref.: Carus, ed., p. 294.
U.S. or Britain to Return GP's Remains?
Death & Funeral. 53-U.S. or Britain to Return GP's Remains? U.S. Minister to Britain Motley received two messages at the same time. British Foreign Secty. Lord Clarendon's message, Nov. 13, 1869, stated that Queen Victoria wished to show her respect by transporting GP's remains to the U.S. on a British ship of war. U.S. Secty. of State Hamilton Fish's message, Nov. 12, 1869, asked Motley to inform the British government that U.S. Rear Adm. William Radford (1808-90), U.S. Naval European commander, was sending a U.S. vessel from Marseilles, France, as funeral ship. Ref.: (Motley receives conflicting messages): Moran's journal entry Nov. 13, 1869, Library of Congress Ms.
Benjamin Moran's Journal on GP’s Funeral
Death & Funeral. 54-Minister Motley's Dilemma. Benjamin Moran recorded Motley's dilemma: "These communications threw Mr. Motley into one of his fits of indecision and when I arrived he hardly knew what to do. I advised that he should telegraph the substance of Lord Clarendon's note to Mr. Fish and ask for instructions. This he did and late tonight he received a telegram from Washington saying the President yielded to the Queen's Govt...... "And thus the matter for the present rests, more noise having been made over the old fellow dead than living. [Lord Clarendon] said that Her Majesty would have created Peabody a Peer had he been disposed to accept." Ref.: Ibid.
Death & Funeral. 55-Moran Again (Nov. 15, 1869). Moran, a typically harassed legation secretary, recorded: "Mr. Motley has been in a worry all day about this business. Old Peabody has given us much trouble and it seems as if he never would be quiet.... I paid a visit to the Duchess of Somerset.... The Duchess was grieving about Peabody, and thinks the Queen should have created him a Duke. One of the Diplomatic Corps said to her that the English were making too much of the old man, at which her Grace was offended. I think the Diplomat was right." [Moran at the Cosmopolitan Club that night.] "Peabody was discussed and Mr. Hughes said he was the only foreigner ever buried in Westminster Abbey. Others were naturalized." Ref.: Moran's journal entry Nov. 15, 1869, Library of Congress Ms.
Death & Funeral. 56-Moran Again (Nov. 16, 1869): "Mr. Peabody haunts the Legation from all parts of the world like a ghost." Moran (Nov. 19, 1869): "Sir Curtis Lampson and Mr. George Peabody Russell [1835-1909, GP's nephew, son of sister Judith] came to see me about noon to-day.... G.P. Russell is a dull sort of young man, and by no means very polished. "Mr. Motley returned to town...and was very much excited because he must go to Portsmouth to deliver Peabody's remains.... He never knows his own mind ten minutes." Ref.: Moran's journal entries Nov. 16, 19, 1869, Library of Congress Ms.
Death & Funeral. 57-Moran Again (Nov. 20, 1869): "Motley fidgety as usual--a note from Lampson about sending Peabody home." Moran (Nov. 22, 1869): "Adm. Radford now says he don't know where the Richmond is and asks if he may send the Plymouth. [Discussion about the Alabama claims controversy.] "It looks to me as if even old Peabody's gifts to the London poor would not settle the feeling that in fact, exist between the two countries." Moran recorded (Nov. 23, 1869) what Motley indiscreetly told him was said about GP at the Prince of Wales's dinner: "And the Prince of Wales said it was rumored about that Lady Lampson was old Peabody's daughter. Thus the living great slander the dead." Ref.: Moran's journal entries Nov. 20 and 22, 1869, Library of Congress Ms.
Death & Funeral. 58-Moran Again (Dec. 6, 1869): [The Motleys were invited to dine with the Queen at Windsor.] "But it delays the departure of old Peabody's remains. Will that old man ever be buried? Indeed it seems as if he would not. He gives trouble to all classes of officials, royal, republican, state, diplomatic, naval, consulate, military, ecclesiastic, and civil, and has stirred up commotion all over the world." Ref.: Moran's journal entry Dec. 6, 1869, Library of Congress Ms.
GP’s Funeral Ship HMS Monarch
Death & Funeral. 59-Why HMS Monarch was Chosen as Funeral Ship. The large British iron cruiser HMS Inconstant was first considered to return GP's remains to the U.S., according to GP funeral researcher Allen Howard Welch. But on Nov. 12 U.S. government officials instructed U.S. Minister to Britain J.L. Motley to respectfully inform Queen Victoria's government that the U.S. preferred to return GP's remains on a U.S. warship. At the same time U.S. Rear Adm. William Radford, U.S. Navy European commander, was instructed to send his best ship to return GP's remains. This conflict spurred the British Admiralty to go "all out" in naming HMS Monarch as funeral ship. When advised that a U.S. ship could not reach England in time, Pres. U.S. Grant accepted the British plan but ordered a U.S. Naval vessel to accompany the Monarch. Ref.: Welch, pp. 116-137, quoted as sources (for the HMS Inconstant): London Times, Nov. 13, 1869, p. 9; (for Adm. Radford's being instructed to send a U.S. warship as funeral ship): New York Times, Nov. 13, 1869, p. 3; (for Pres. U.S. Grant's acceptance of HMS Monarch as funeral vessel but accompanied by a U.S. Naval ship): London Times, Nov. 15, 1869, p. 7.
Death & Funeral. 60-HMS Monarch Described. The irony in Britain's friendly insistence in taking the lead in GP's transatlantic funeral voyage was that in the War of 1812, 56 years earlier, GP had been a volunteer U.S. soldier to stop the British fleet from moving up the Potomac to sack the U.S. Capitol. HMS Monarch, the Royal Navy's first successful armored turret ship, was designed after the revolving gun turret had been effectively used on U.S. Civil War iron-clad monitors. The Monarch's keel was laid down in England's Chatham dockyard, June 1866; she was launched in May 1868, and was completed in June 1869, at a cost of £345,575. With armor and equipment she totaled 8,300 tons, measured 330 feet in length, carried 27,700 square feet of sail, had a beam of 57 and a half feet, a mean draft of 24 feet, was originally armed with four 12 inch and three seven inch guns, was capable of 15 knots under full steam, making her the fastest battleship of the day. She served mainly in the Channel Islands and ended her career at Simonstown, South Africa, in 1906. See: War of 1812. Ref.: (HMS Monarch described): London Times, Dec. 10, 1869, p. 3. Bennett, p. 234. Clowes, Vol. VII, p. 26. (Information from) Maritime Arts & History Dept., Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Mass.
Monarch as Funeral Ship Suggested by Andrew Carnegie
Death & Funeral. 61-Monarch Suggested by Andrew Carnegie to John Bright. Researcher A.H. Welch wrote: "Oscar Parkes, an authority on British war vessels, attributed the choice of HMS Monarch to return GP's remains to the U.S. to an anonymous cablegram received from America by [MP] John Bright: 'First and best service possible for "Monarch," bring home Peabody.' Parkes claimed that many years later Andrew Carnegie met Bright and took credit for the cable." Ref.: Welch, pp. 116-137, quoted as sources (for Andrew Carnegie's suggestion of using HMS Monarch): Clowes, Vol. VII, p. 227, and Parkes, p. 136.
Death & Funeral. 62-Andrew Carnegie's Autobiography. In Andrew Carnegie's (1835-1919) Autobiography (1933), the Scottish-born steel maker and philanthropist recalled reading of the launching of Britain's largest warship HMS Monarch, publicized in jingoistic British newspapers as able to level a U.S. port city. After reading of GP's Nov. 4, 1869, death in London and of GP's will requiring burial in Mass., he telegraphed British cabinet member John Bright (1811-99): "First and best service for Monarch, bringing home the body of Peabody." "Strange to say," Carnegie wrote, "this was done, and thus the Monarch became the messenger of peace, not of destruction." Ref.: Carnegie, p. 270. See: Carnegie, Andrew.
Portsmouth, England
Death & Funeral. 63-Delays and Visitors, Portsmouth Dock. The Admiralty first set HMS Monarch to sail Nov. 27, 1869. But the USS Richmond, first ordered to accompany HMS Monarch, was in the Mediterranean and could not join the Monarch in time. The USS Plymouth was then ordered to accompany the Monarch. The USS Plymouth could not get from Marseilles, France, to join the Monarch before Dec. 1, 1869. She would also need time to take on coal and make other preparation for an Atlantic crossing. The USS Richmond and the USS Kenosha
were also ordered to accompany the Monarch but for some reason neither arrived. Ref Welch, pp. 116-137, listed these sources on the non-arrival of USS Richmond and USS Kenosha: London Times, Dec. 24, 1869, p. 7; Hampshire Telegraph and Sussex Chronicle (Portsmouth, England), Nov. 27, 1869, p. 4.
Death & Funeral. 64-Delays and Visitors, Portsmouth Dock Cont'd. The Monarch's departure was reset for sometime during Dec. 2-6, which came and went with GP's remains still at Westminster Abbey. The USS Plymouth arrived Dec. 6, 1869, and completed her coaling Dec. 9. She was a corvette; i.e., a highly maneuverable armed escort ship, wooden-built, without armor, with ten guns, long, narrow, and looked like a merchant clipper. On Dec. 8, 1869, First Lord of the Admiralty Hugh Culling Eardley Childers (1827-96) boarded HMS Monarch to inspect preparations in progress to receive GP's remains. Ref.: (Description of USS Plymouth): London Times, Dec. 10, 1869, p. 3. Ref.: (H.C.E. Childers): Hampshire Telegraph (Portsmouth, England), Dec. 11, 1869, p. 4. See: Childers, Hugh Culling Eardley.
Death & Funeral. 65-Delays and Visitors, Portsmouth Dock Cont'd. With the transfer of GP's remains again reset for Saturday, Dec. 11, 1869, workmen had time (Nov. 23 to Dec. 11) to outfit the Monarch in full naval mourning. Her turrets, funnel, hurricane deck, lower masts, bowsprits, yards, and blocks aloft were all painted a "French gray." A ribbon of gray was painted around the outer sides of the bulwarks. To receive the coffin and for public viewing in ceremonies at Portsmouth and at the U.S. receiving port, a lofty pavilion was built on the ship's upper deck, its canopy covered and lined with black cloth trimmed with white silk fringe. Here the coffin would be placed on a bier. Ref.: (HMS Monarch outfitted as funeral vessel): Army and Navy Gazette Dec. 18, 1869, p. 811. Nautical Magazine and Naval Chronicle, Jan. 1870, p. 29. London Times, Dec. 4, 1869, p. 9.
Death & Funeral. 66-Mortuary Chapel Built on HMS Monarch. For the transatlantic crossing the ship's carpenter built a circular mortuary chapel on the aftermost portion of the main deck where the coffin could be secured. The chapel's dome, walls, and deck were covered in black cloth. From the center of the dome radiated white silk cords, looped around the upper walls in festoons of cloth fringed with deep white lace. Facing the entrance was the American eagle in a device of silver with the inscription "E Pluribus Unum." Around the walls at intervals was the monogram "G.P." in silver, wreaths of immortelles, and silver-plated brackets with double wax lights. The bier was in the center of this chapel. Huge silver-plated candlesticks stood at each corner of the bier. Each candlestick, nearly three feet high, held wax tapers almost as tall as the holders. Visitors, admitted aboard in the first week in Dec. 1869, numbered in the thousands. The London Times (Dec. 4, 1869) added: "the continual stream...from 9 o'clock in the morning till near sunset, and especially after noon, never seeming to slacken." Ref.: Ibid.
Benjamin Moran on Portsmouth Transfer
Death & Funeral. 67-Moran on Preparations at Portsmouth. U.S. Legation in London Secty. Benjamin Moran recorded (Dec. 8, 1869): "There is another hitch about sending away Peabody's remains. He must go on board the Monarch on Saturday morning [Dec. 11], or not for ten days to come, as the tide will not serve as to get the ship out of the harbor, except at night, and the Admiralty don't want the risk taking her away in the dark." Ref.: Moran's journal entry Dec. 8, 1869, Library of Congress Ms.
Death & Funeral. 68-Moran on Transfer of Remains, Portsmouth, Dec. 11, 1869. In gossipy style, Moran described the transfer of GP's remains on Dec. 11 (as he interpreted events involving U.S. Minister Motley): "He [Mr. Motley] has gone by special train to Portsmouth...and if no hitch takes place--about which I am not so sure--we shall get rid of the old fellow on Monday and the people on the other side will then have their time.... Mr. Motley got back about 7:30 from Portsmouth.... As usual, Johnny Bull blundered in the arrangements.... Nobody knew what to do. Captain [John Edmund] Commerell [1829-1901, of Monarch] seemed frightened and nervous. The remains were put on board pretty much as you would embark a bale of goods, only there was no invoice.... When ready to leave for their return every official had disappeared...." Ref.: Moran's journal entries Dec. 11, 1869, Library of Congress Ms.
Death & Funeral. 69-Moran on Transfer, Dec. 11, 1869 Cont'd. "Sir James Hope [1808-81], the Commandant, had left, no doubt, from fear he would be obliged to get them a luncheon and the consequence was that Minister, executors, and friends got refreshments at the railway station--the viands consisting of 'cakes and ale.' A tablet to Geo. Peabody is to be placed in Westminster Abbey." Ref.: Ibid. Ref.: (For biographical source on Sir James Hope): "Hope, Sir James (1808-81)," IX, pp. 1212-1214.
Portsmouth Transfer Ceremony
Death & Funeral. 70-Portsmouth, Dec. 11, 1869 Cont'd. Unlike Moran's flippant private journal view, newspaper accounts emphasized the solemnity of the Dec. 11, 1869, transfer of GP's remains from Westminster Abbey by train to Portsmouth harbor and placed aboard HMS Monarch. Dec. 11, 1869, was a cold, damp, dark morning in London. Dean A.P. Stanley of Westminster Abbey was present at 7: 00 A.M. when GP's coffin was taken from the Abbey to a waiting hearse. The hearse, followed by other carriages, headed for Waterloo Station. Two British railroads had offered special funeral trains without charge. Sir Curtis Lampson had arranged for the London and South-Western Railway Co. to provide the funeral train. Accompanying the coffin on the funeral train were U.S. Minister to Britain John Lothrop Motley, Sir Curtis M. Lampson, GP's British estate executor Charles Reed (1819-81), GP's former partner Junius Spencer Morgan (1813-90), U.S.-born London resident genealogist and GP's friend Horatio Gates Somerby, GP's nephew George Peabody Russell (1835-1909) who had arrived a few days before, and others. Ref.: (Cold drenching rain and howling wind): Hampshire Telegraph (Portsmouth, England), Dec. 15, 1869, p. 3, c. 3-4.
Death & Funeral. 71-Portsmouth, Dec. 11, 1869 Cont'd. At 12:30 P.M. in the cold, drenching rain, the funeral train left Waterloo Station, passed through Guilford (1:23 P.M.), where many people congregated, through Petersfield (2:12 P.M.), Rowlands Castle (2:26 P.M.), Havant (2:34 P.M.), and Portsmouth (2:41 P.M.), where hundreds of people waited in the cold rain. A special track siding avoided the Landsport Station and carried the slowly moving funeral train to the Portland dockyard. Ref.: (Special train): Sir Curtis Miranda Lampson to John Lothrop Motley, Dec. 3, 1869, "Dispatches from United States Ministers, Great Britain," enclosure No. 20 to Dispatch No. 195, U.S. National Archives, Washington, D.C. Brighton Daily News (Brighton, England), Dec. 13, 1869, p. 3, c. 1-2. Ref.: (Funeral train timetable): Hampshire Telegraph (Portsmouth, England), Dec. 11, 1869, p. 8, c. 1-2.
Death & Funeral. 72-Portsmouth, Dec. 11, 1869 Cont'd. The funeral train entered the north gate of the dockyard, a quarter of a mile from where HMS Monarch was moored. In the steady downpour two facing lines of marines and seamen rested on their reversed arms in the British military symbol of mourning. Spectators, many of them women, lined the jetty and neighboring docks. From above, the scene showed a sea of black umbrellas mingling oddly with the lines, spars, and beams of the ships at dock. Portsmouth and Ryde town council members stood out boldly in their scarlet robes of office. Portsmouth Mayor George Sheppard (b.1815, believed previously a justice of the peace) had earlier suggested a procession through Portsmouth streets, but this plan was dropped. Refs. below.
Death & Funeral. 73-Portsmouth, Dec. 11, 1869 Cont'd. At 3:00 P.M. when the slowly moving funeral train stopped, a gun salute went up from HMS Excellent. The Monarch's bow battery echoed the boom. Bugles blared a funeral dirge. Ships in the harbor lowered their ensigns to half mast and raised the U.S. ensign abreast their foretopmost crosstrees. The USS Plymouth lowered her ensign. HMS Duke of Wellingtonguns fired at minute intervals. Guns boomed in the cold rain. The wind blew violently through the Monarch's rigging. Ten seamen bore the coffin from the train to the Monarch, preceded by Royal Navy Chaplain, Rev. John Jacob Harrison (1822-88). Following the coffin up the railed gangway were Motley, Lampson, Reed, Morgan, Somerby, and G.P. Russell. The bearers lowered the coffin to the quarterdeck and placed it on a black covered bier specially prepared on a black curtained pavilion. The gun salutes ceased. The handing over ceremony began. Refs. below. See: persons and ships named.
Death & Funeral. 74-Portsmouth, Dec. 11, 1869, Motley to Commerell. U.S. Minister to Britain Motley stepped up to HMS Monarch's Capt. John Edmund Commerell. In the blowing wind Motley said: "The President of the United States, when informed of the death of George Peabody, the great philanthropist, at once ordered an American ship to convey his remains to America. Simultaneously, the Queen appointed one of Her Majesty's ships to perform that office. This double honor from the heads of two great nations to a simple American citizen is, like his gift to the poor, unprecedented. The President yields cordially to the wish of the Queen. "All that was mortal of our lamented friend was taken from Westminster Abbey, where seldom before has a foreigner been so honored. As minister of the Republic at the Court of Her Majesty I deliver to your safe keeping, at the request of the relatives and executors of Mr. Peabody, his revered remains." Refs. below. See: persons named.
Death & Funeral. 75-Portsmouth, Dec. 11, 1869, Commerell to Motley. Capt. Commerell answered: "I accept this sacred trust. These remains shall be solemnly cared for and guarded, for the memory of George Peabody is held dear by the people of my country." The transfer was complete. But blowing gales and storms kept the Monarch at Spithead off Portsmouth harbor during Dec. 11-20, 1869. Refs. below.
Death & Funeral. 76-Portsmouth, Dec. 11, 1869; Capt. Commerell’s career. John Edmund Commerell, age 40, first distinguished himself at age 16 as a midshipman aboard HMS Firebrand. He was one of the first to receive the Victoria Cross, June 26, 1857, during the Crimean War, and attained the rank of captain in 1859 after leading a division of seamen in a landing force in North China. Ref.: (Capt. Commerell): Welch, pp. 116-137. Clowes, Vol. VI, pp. 215, 341; Vol. VII, pp. 129-130, 575. (Note: For the career of Capt. William H. Macomb [1819-72] of the USS Plymouth, ordered by the U.S. Navy to accompany HMS Monarch on the transatlantic funeral voyage, See: Ref.: Hamersly, p. 61; and g. Internet under Macomb, William H.
Death & Funeral. 77-Portsmouth, Dec. 11, 1869. Ref.: (Westminster Abbey, London, to Portsmouth harbor, handing over ceremony, speeches, sources in alphabetical order): Aberdeen Herald (Aberdeen, Scotland), Nov. 20, 1869, p. 3, c. 3; and Nov. 27, 1869, p. 4, c. 5. Anglo-American Times (London), Dec. 11, 1869, p. 11, c. 1-2. Annual Register; A Review of Public Events at Home and Abroad for the Year, 1869 (London: Longman & Co., 1870), Part II, pp. 144-146. Birmingham Weekly Post (Birmingham, England), Dec. 18, 1869, p. 3, c. 6. Boston Guardian (Boston, Lincolnshire, England), Nov. 27, 1869, p. 2, c. 5. Brechin Advertiser (Brechin, England), Nov. 30, 1869, p. 3, c. 3. Daily News (London), Dec. 13, 1869. Dundee Courier and Argus (Dundee, Scotland), Dec. 13, 1869, p. 3, c. 4. g. Internet, Monarch, HMS (statistics, brief history, sketch of).
Death & Funeral. 78-Portsmouth, Dec. 11, 1869. Ref.: [Speeches by Minister Motley and Capt. Commerell] Hampshire Telegraph (Portsmouth, England), Dec. 15, 1869, p. 3, c. 2. "Historical Funerals...," pp. 46-48. Illustrated London News, Vol. 55, No. 1573 (Dec. 25, 1869), pp. 648 and 661. Inverness Advertiser (Inverness, Scotland), Nov. 16, 1869, p. 2, c. 3. Morning Post (London), Dec. 13, 1869. New York Herald, Nov. 28, 1869, p. 3, c. 1; and Dec. 14, 1869, p. 7, c. 1. New York Times, Dec. 14, 1869, p. 5, c. 1. New York Tribune, Dec. 14, 1869, p. 1, c. 1. Portsmouth Times and Naval Gazette (Portsea, England), Dec. 18, 1869, p. 6, c. 3-5. Sheffield Times (Sheffield, England), Dec. 18, 1869, p. 12, c. 2. Sun (London), Dec. 13, 1869, p. 2, c. 2. Times (London), Dec. 10, 1869, p. 3, c. 5; and Dec. 13, 1869, p. 6, c. 1-2.
Storms Delay Departure
Death & Funeral. 79-Storms Delay; Moran's Last Entries. While storms delayed departure of the Monarch, Benjamin Moran made his last journal entries on GP (Dec. 13, 1869): "I dined at J.S. Morgan's in the evening [and] George Peabody Russell was there.... A dull fellow.... I called at the Duchess of Somerset yesterday and found Mr. Childers [Hugh Culling Eardley Childers, 1827-96], First Lord of the Admiralty...there. Her Grace was full of lamentations for old Peabody; but rather exalted over the rumor that the 'great philanthropist' had left none of his money to Sir Curtis Lampson and his family--or next to none." Moran (Dec. 15, 1869): "He [U.S. Minister John Lothrop Motley] is long winded about Old Peabody's embarkation, and somewhat prosy." Moran (Jan. 1, 1870): "I was told that Peabody had left Lady Emerson Tennent nothing and that she is in distress." Moran (Feb. 12, 1870): "Lord Derby (Late Lord Stanley [Edward Henry Smith Stanley Derby, 15th Earl, 1826-93]) was very cordial and laughed at the delay in burying old Peabody." Thus, Moran, all too human and often critical, ended his journal entries on GP with gossip trivia. Ref.: Moran's journal entries Dec. 13 and 15, 1869; Jan. 1 and Feb. 12, 1870, Library of Congress Ms. See: persons named.
Praise and Eulogy
Death & Funeral. 80-Resolutions of Praise on GP's Death (Philadelphia). GP's widely reported death and funeral brought tributes and resolutions of praise. On Nov. 5, 1869, in Philadelphia, to a national convention of Jewish religious leaders (rabbis), the Rev. Dr. Samuel Hirsch (1815-89), Rabbi of Philadelphia’s Knesseth Israel (1866-88), spoke of GP's life, philanthropy, and death. The convention unanimously passed a resolution of esteem for GP. Ref.: Philadelphia, Penn., Rabbiner-Conferenz. See: Hirsch, Rev. Samuel.
Death & Funeral. 81-Resolutions of Praise on GP's Death (Tenn. Legislature). The Tenn. legislature, among the first to pass a resolution on GP's death, recorded: "Whereas, we have received, with deep regret, the melancholy tidings of the death of George Peabody, whose life has been distinguished by an ardent philanthropy, manifesting itself in numerous acts of the most disinterested and munificent charity, and endearing his name to the heart of his adopted as well as his native country, therefore, Resolved by the General Assembly of the State of TennesSee:, that, in the death of this distinguished American, we deplore the loss of a benefactor of our race, whose memory deserves to be held in perpetual and grateful reverence--not alone by those who have been the recipients of his charities--but all mankind who have been blessed by his example." Ref.: Tenn. Acts of ...TennesSee:...1869-1870, Resolution No. XV, p. 667.
Death & Funeral. 82-Victor Hugo's Eulogy, France. Unusual eulogies for GP came from two French intellectuals. French writer Victor Marie Hugo (1802-85) wrote: "America has reason to be proud of this great citizen of the world and great brother of all men,--George Peabody. Peabody [was a man who suffered] in all sufferings, a...man who [felt] the cold, the hunger, and thirst of the poor. Having a place near Rothschild, he found means to change it for one near Vincent de Paul." Hugo concluded: "May Peabody return to you, blessed by us! Our world envies yours.... The free American flag can never display enough stars above his coffin." Ref.: London Times, Dec. 13, 1869, p. 6, c. 1-2; reprinted in Hanaford, pp. 240-242.
Death & Funeral. 83-Louis Blanc's Eulogy, France. The second letter was from French political writer Louis Blanc (1811-82): "The death of...George Peabody...is a public calamity, in which the whole civilized world ought to share. I feel...bound...to mourn, for the illustrious American whose life was of such value to the most needy of his fellow-men." Blanc continued: "It is but natural...that his mortal remains should be committed to...Westminster Abbey, to be sent...in a ship of war to his native land.... There should be for men of [his] stamp...homage better calculated to show how little, compared to them, are most kings, princes, noblemen, renowned diplomatists, [and] world-famed conquerors." Blanc concluded: "The number of mourners...[at the Abbey], their silent sorrow, the tears shed by so many...of London, the readiness of the shopkeepers [in] closing their shops and lowering their blinds,--these were the homages...due one whose title in history will be...--the friend of the poor." The London Times indicated that these eulogies may have come in response to funeral invitations from the Peabody, Mass., committee on funeral arrangements. Ref. Ibid.
Death & Funeral. 84-Abolitionist Critic W.L. Garrison. Many praised while some criticized GP. Abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison (1805-79) wrote in his NYC Independent
(Nov. 11, 1869) that he wished GP had more strongly opposed slavery: "We cannot disguise ourselves, in surveying his character, a certain unlovely coldness and selfishness which...prompted him eagerly to amass, and grudgingly to disburse his abundant means for many years. Nor can we pay any warm tribute to the patriotism of an American who, during the war against the rebellion, divided his meager sympathy equally between slavery and liberty." See Civil War and GP.
Death & Funeral. 85-GP Defenders Weed and McIlvaine. Two prominent pro-Union leaders sprang to GP's defense in print, citing instances showing him as a staunch Unionist. New York State political figure and newspaper editor Thurlow Weed (1797-1882) wrote a long defense published in the New York Times (Dec. 23, 1869) and other newspapers. Episcopal Bishop of Ohio Charles Pettit McIlvaine (1799-1873) publicly endorsed Weed's defense. In 1861-62 both were Pres. Lincoln's private emissaries sent (Nov. 1861) to keep Britain and France neutral in the U.S. Civil War. In London both had consulted GP, who put them in touch with British leaders. Weed's and McIlvaine's vindication was challenged by Charles Wilson Felt, a Mass.-born type set inventor who claimed to have talked to GP in London in 1861 and stated that he heard GP speak of separation. Felt concluded with: "It would have been better if Mr. Peabody had remained in the United States instead of coming to England to die. His purpose in doing so was a bid for notoriety." Ref. Ibid.
Death & Funeral. 86-Critic George Francis Train. On Dec. 27, 1869, George Francis Train (1829-1904), pro-Irish anti-British extremist, gave a speech in Boston attacking GP: "I regard the fact of George Peabody's remains being brought over on a British ship of war the greatest insult ever offered to America. George Peabody was a secessionist. The Alabama Claims is still unsettled and American citizens are dying in British prisons." Thus were charge and countercharge, praise and criticism, made about GP's Civil War sympathies while British and U.S. officials outdid each other in extending him unprecedented funeral honors. Ref. Ibid.
Death & Funeral. 87-Awaiting Storm's End. The Monarch steamed the few miles from Portsmouth to Spithead and anchored near the Plymouth. GP's coffin was moved from the upper deck pavilion and placed in the mortuary chapel where marine sentries stood guard. Nephew George Peabody Russell, who would accompany GP's remains across the Atlantic to the U.S. receiving port, was given cabin accommodations. The funeral ships were due to sail Dec. 13, 1869, but were detained by blowing gales during Dec. 12-20, 1869. Rumors that more U.S. ships and a French national ship would arrive as escort vessels proved false. Ref. (Detained by storms): Gray, pp. 116-137. London Times, Dec. 14, 1869, p. 10, c. 3, and Dec. 20, 1869, p. 12. Aberdeen Free Press (Aberdeen, Scotland), Dec. 17, 1869, p. 5, c. 2. Dundee Courier and Argus (Dundee, Scotland), Dec. 17, 1869, p. 3, c. 4. Ref. (False report of a French escort vessel): Paradise, p. 337. Hoyt, p. 150. U.S. Govt.-g, h, i.
Death & Funeral. 88-Queen Victoria on the Royal Yacht. Some excitement came at 1:00 P.M., Dec. 18, 1869, when the royal yacht Albert with Queen Victoria aboard passed Spithead to view the funeral ships. USS Plymouth saluted with 21 guns and raised the British ensign. For two weeks while the gales blew thousands of visitors boarded the imposing Monarch and passed silently by the coffin on its dais in the solemn mortuary room. Ref. Ibid.
Death & Funeral. 89-Delay and Wonder. Delay of the funeral ships by storms allowed time for wonder at GP's funeral honors. The Scottish Inverness Courier editor asked: "Why so much honor shown to this man, a foreigner, by all England?" The editor answered with another question: "No doubt Mr. Peabody is deserving of all these honours.... But there can be no doubt that much of the honour done to Mr. Peabody is due to the fact that it is an American who has done all this. A countryman of our own could not expect to have his charities thus recognized." The editor hoped that other rich men might emulate GP: "It may be hoped that the honours which have been heaped upon Mr. Peabody during his life, and since
Death, will have a stimulating effect upon other rich men to devote their wealth to the benefit of their fellow-creatures. Such honours have hardly ever been bestowed before except upon crowned heads...." Ref. Inverness Courier (Inverness, Scotland), Nov. 18, 1869, p. 5, c. 3.
Death & Funeral. 90-Delay and Wonder Cont'd. The Scottish Ayrshire Express criticized the expenditure in time and money: "The honour thus paid to his memory is of course well deserved, but still it does seem strange to employ two vessels of war to take the 'silent dust' of the deceased across the Atlantic. If both vessels took over a hundred or a hundred and fifty emigrants each to lessen the burden of our poverty and misery here, this would be doing a good work far more in accordance with the ideas of the kindhearted man we have lost than is this extravagant employment of men and ships." The Herts Advertiser and St. Albans Times credited GP's example with inspiring another philanthropic gift: "Mr. Peabody's noble example seems to be gaining strength.... M.M. Reicenheim, bankers at Berlin, have presented the Jewish community of that city with 250,000 thalers for the erection of an orphan asylum." Ref. Ayrshire Express (Ayr, Scotland), Dec. 11, 1869, p. 4, c. 4-5. Herts Advertiser and St. Albans Times (St. Albans, England), Dec. 18, 1869, p. 2, c. 2.
Death & Funeral. 91-U.S. House of Rep., Dec. 15, 1869. On Dec. 15, 1869, while the funeral ships awaited the storm's end, U.S. Rep. Thomas Laurens Jones (1819-87, Democrat-Ky.) introduced U.S. House Resolution No. 96, which praised GP and asked Pres. U.S. Grant (1822-85) to order a U.S. Navy reception when GP's remains entered the U.S. receiving port. The resolution was debated on Dec. 21, 1869, passed in the House, but amid charge and rebuttal that GP had been pro-Confederate and anti-Union. The resolution was passed in the Senate on Dec. 23, 1869, and signed into law by Pres. Grant. Ref. U.S. Govt.-g. Congressional Globe, 41st Congress, 2nd Session, Part I, December 6-February 1, 1869-1870, XC, p. 294. London Times, Dec. 16, 1869, p. 10, c. 1. Hanaford, p. 231. New York Herald, Dec. 22, 1869, p. 4, c. 3. New York Times, Dec. 22, 1869, p. 1, c. 4. Dundee Courier and Argus (Dundee, Scotland), Dec. 17, 1869, p. 3, c. 4. Hampshire Telegraph (Portsmouth, England) Dec. 22, 1869, p. 2, c. 5.
Death & Funeral. 92-U.S. House of Rep., Dec. 15, 1869, Cont'd. U.S. House Resolution No. 96 read: "Whereas, in the death of George Peabody...our country and the world have sustained [great] loss.... "And whereas the Queen of Great Britain, the authorities of London, and the Emperor of France have made extraordinary provision for the transfer of his remains to his native land; therefore, "It is resolved by the Senate and the House of Representatives of the United States of America Congress, "That the President of the United States...[shall prepare to receive his remains]...in a manner commensurate with the...dignity of a great people." News of the Congressional resolution read: "The President was authorized to order as many ships as were convenient to meet at sea the European convoy conducting George Peabody's remains home." Ref. Ibid.
Death & Funeral. 93-Transatlantic Crossing, Dec. 21, 1869-Jan. 25, 1870. The storms subsided on Dec. 20, 1869. At 1:00 A.M., Dec. 21, 1869, HMS Monarch and USS Plymouth moved south from Spithead. Beyond the town of Ushant, France, gale winds and rain swirled the ships around so that they lost sight of each other. Madeira island off Portugal had previously been set as a rendezvous point. The funeral ships went south separately and met at Madeira (Dec. 30), went west separately to Bermuda, and joined up as they steamed north to New England. Ref. (Transatlantic crossing): Manchester Guardian (Manchester, England), Dec. 22, 1869, p. 5, c. 1. "Log of the Monarch," Admiralty 53/9877, Public Record Office, London. Portsmouth Times and Naval Gazette (Portsea, England), Feb. 12, 1870, p. 4, c. 4. [Note: For artist Robert Dudley's large oil on canvas painting, "HMS Monarch Transporting the Body of George Peabody," acquired by the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Mass., 1995, see American Neptune. Death and Funeral, GP's. Robert Dudley. GP Bicentennial Celebration (Feb. 18, 1795-1995)]. Peabody, George, Illustrations. Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Mass. Persons named.
Death & Funeral. 94-Transatlantic Crossing, Dec. 21, 1869-Jan. 25, 1870 Cont'd. A Plymouth officer later explained why he was glad at separation: "Left Spithead 21st, and kept on the starboard quarter of the Monarch as long as we could, but on the 2nd day out, the wind freshening, we separated during the night, at which we were very pleased, for there was always some nonsense about going too fast or too slow, and no end of signals. I am sure the separation was a great relief to both ships. We had beautiful weather after crossing the Bay of Biscay. Christmas Day was as bright and lovely as the month of June...." Ref. (Plymouth officer): Hampshire Telegraph (Portsmouth, England), Jan. 8, 1870, p. 4, c. 5.
House Debate on U.S. Navy Reception, Dec. 21, 1869
Death & Funeral. 95-U.S. House of Rep. Debate, Dec. 21, 1869. On Dec. 21, 1869, the day the funeral ships left Spithead, U.S. Rep. Thomas Laurens Jones (D-Ky.) called for discussion of his U.S. House Resolution No. 96 requesting a U.S. Navy reception for GP's remains. The debate, in brief: a-Rep. William Henry Kelso (1812-79, R-NY) rose as a point of order to say that the resolution should go to the Appropriation Committee. b-House Speaker James Gillespie Blaine (1830-93, R-Me.) reminded Kelso that unanimous consent was given Dec. 15 for House discussion. Refs. at end of Congressional debate.
Death & Funeral. 96-U.S. House of Rep. Debate, Dec. 21, 1869 Cont'd. c-Rep. Benjamin Franklin Butler (1818-93, R-Mass.) said he understood that GP's remains would arrive before U.S. naval ships could meet the funeral ship. e-Jones (D-Ky.) said GP's remains will not arrive for a week; Pres. Grant can yet fulfill this resolution. f-Butler (R-Mass.) did not think a U.S. naval ship could be readied in a week. g-If not, Jones (D-Ky.) said, then Pres. Grant can still order ships that are ready. Jones gave a passionate tribute to GP as the greatest philanthropist of this age and asked that the resolution be considered apart from party rancor. h-Rep. Robert Cumming Schenck (1809-90, R-Ohio) moved to adjourn to allow Congress to consider if it should go to this expense at all. i-Rep. Daniel Wolsey Voorhees (1827-97, D-Ind.) expressed his regret, in view of GP's vast gifts to U.S. education and science, that a move to adjourn was made. j-Rep. Schenck defended his move to adjourn and, amid scattered applause, challenged GP's patriotism during the Civil War. k-Rep. Jones expressed shame that his proposal to honor GP had evoked rancorous debate. He mentioned withdrawing it.
Death & Funeral. 97-U.S. House of Rep. Debate, Dec. 21, 1869 Cont'd. l-But the House refused to adjourn. With Rep. Schenck still objecting, the House passed the resolution, which went to the Senate on Dec. 23, was examined and passed, and was signed into law by Pres. Grant on Jan. 10, 1870. A New York Tribune editorial (Dec. 22, 1869, p. 6, c. 2) regretted that GP's Union loyalty had been questioned again in the House, especially after Thurlow Weed's public vindication of GP as aiding Pres. Lincoln's emissaries (Weed and others) sent to London in Nov. 1861 to keep England and France neutral in the Civil War. GP's funeral researcher A.H. Welch explained the anti-GP bitterness in the congressional debate: "...many northerners were not sympathetic toward Peabody for remaining in England during the Civil War, and for his financial support to southern education after the war." Ref Welch, p. 127.
Death & Funeral. 98-U.S. House of Rep. Debate, Dec. 21, 1869 Cont'd. Ref. U.S. Govt. , op. cit., pp. 294-295. U.S. Govt.-e, Biographical Directory of the American Congress 1774-1949 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1950), p. 1389 on Rep. Thomas Laurens Jones; p. 1400 on Rep. William Henry Kelso; pp. 926-927 on Benjamin Franklin Butler; p. 1886 on Rep. Thomas Swann; p. 1782 on Rep. Robert Cumming Schenck; pp. 1958-1959 on Rep. Daniel Wolsey Voorhees. London Times, Dec. 23, 1869, p. 5, c. 1. New York Tribune, Dec. 22, 1869, p. 3, c. 6. New York Herald, Dec. 22, 1869, p. 4, c. 3. Anglo-American Times (London), Jan. 8, 1870, p. 8, c. 2. U.S. Govt.-h, Journal of the United States House of Representatives, 41st Congress, 2nd Session, 1869-1870, pp. 66, 100, 101, 103, 104, 114; index, p. 1524. U.S. Govt.-i, Journal of the United States Senate, 41st Congress, 2nd Session, 1869-1870, pp. 67, 68, 70, 85; index, p. 1270. New York Tribune, Dec. 22, 1869, p. 6, c. 2. See Persons named.
Death & Funeral. 99-HMS Monarch's Log. The USS Plymouth made good time at 14 knots an hour and anchored at Funchall Bay, Madeira, Portugal, several days before HMS Monarch arrived. Mindful of the warship's cargo and mission, the Monarch's captain proceeded cautiously on this its first transoceanic voyage. The Monarch's log read: "Sat., Dec. 25, 1869: Christmas Day. Sighted English brigantine and exchanged colours. Sun., Dec. 26: Passed the brigantine Anne. Tues., Dec. 28: Exchanged colours with British barque Coransius. Wed., Dec. 29: Steering for Madeira." Ref. "Log of the Monarch," Admiralty 53/9877, Public Record Office, London. Anglo-American Times (London), Jan. 8, 1870, p. 10, c. 2. New York Herald, Jan. 17, 1870, p. 5, c. 1.
Death & Funeral. 100-HMS Monarch's Log Cont'd.: "Thurs., Dec. 30: Standing along north side of Madeira. Two ships visible. Donegal, S.W. 1 mile. Plymouth, S.W. 1 1/2 miles. Fri., Dec. 31: Madeira. At single anchor in Funchall Bay. 11:15 P.M. Completed coaling. Received 200 tons. Sat., Jan. 1, 1870: New Year's Day. Madeira. Sun., Jan. 2: 1:40 P.M. HMS Donegal sails. 8 P.M. Weighed anchor and proceeded under steam. Plymouth in company." The Monarch moved slowly from Madeira, using steam sparingly to save coal. Reaching Bermuda slightly in advance of the Monarch, the Plymouth took on provisions and dispatches. Ref. Ibid.
London Street Named for GP?
Death & Funeral. 101-London Sportsman: London Street Named After GP? While the funeral ships crossed the Atlantic, there was talk of naming a newly opened London street after GP. When the Metropolitan Board of Works chose another name, the London Sportsman objected: "It was noted a short time since that the new street leading from the Mansion House to Blackfriar's Bridge should be called Peabody Street, in remembrance of the good man who has done so much for the poor of the metropolis. The proposal was a very reasonable one, for, if there is any honour at all in having an important thoroughfare named after one, the munificent American certainly deserved it; and, if there is not there was no harm in selecting a title that was quite as good as any other." Ref. London Sportsman, Dec. 25, 1869, p. 4, c. 1.
Death & Funeral. 102-London Sportsman Cont'd.: "The Board have, however, chosen to call the street Queen Victoria Street, as if there were not already sufficient thoroughfares so called in the metropolis to show that we are the most loyal people in the world. It is evident that benevolence is not a recommendation for the favours which they have to distribute, and it is well that Mr. Peabody at least does not require his name stuck up at a street corner to secure the friendly remembrance of the people of London." Ref. Ibid.
Which U.S. Receiving Port?
Death & Funeral. 103-Which Port? The public did not know at which U.S. port the funeral ships would anchor. U.S. Navy Secty. George Maxwell Robeson (1829-97) reportedly ordered NYC and Boston port admirals to confer with local authorities in case the landing was made in either city. Spirited rivalry arose between Boston and Portland, Me., and to some degree with NYC. GP had many merchant and banker friends in both Boston and NYC. He had been offered public honors in both cities on his last three U.S. visits. Boston's commerce, wealth, location, and antiquity made its citizens think of themselves as the center of New England society and fashion. New Yorkers had similar views. Because of its deeper harbor the British Admiralty on Dec. 14, 1869, chose Portland, Me. (on May 28, 1857, almost 13 years earlier, GP had visited the Thomas Shaw family in Portland, Me.). Ref. Mortuary Honors, pp. 3-4.
Death & Funeral. 104-Boston Chagrined. When it was learned that Portland would be the chosen port, Bostonians, chagrined and disappointed, were sure Portlanders would make a muddle of receiving GP's remains. A contemporary news account described the petty Boston-Portland jealousy as follows: "When the mighty men of Boston knew that England's..."Monarch" was bringing the body of the great philanthropist to his last resting place, they called a meeting and decided with what fitting honors and glories it would be received..., arranged a programme, and said, 'thus shall it be done to the man whom Boston delighteth to honor'; but, when the telegraph flashed the astounding news that little Portland was to be the port...all was changed in the minds of the mighty men.... Fearing that the Portlanders...would blunder...they wrote...to Mr. George Peabody Russell...that nothing could be in worse taste...than to have any other funeral ceremonies than...in Peabody...." Ref. London Times, Dec. 14, 1869, p. 4, c. 2.
Approaching Portland, Me.
Death & Funeral. 105-Approaching Portland, Me. On Jan. 23, 1870, a cold and foggy Sunday morning, the Plymouth in advance of the Monarch, was 60 miles southeast of Montauk Point, the eastern extension of Long Island, N.Y. Plymouth seamen hailed the passing steamer, Hunter, coming from Providence, R.I., bound for Philadelphia, and asked by signals for the bearing of Block Island, off R.I. The Hunter’s captain, not comprehending and not knowing of the Plymouth's errand, steamed on without answer until it came upon the Monarch. The sight of the formidable gray-painted funeral ship with muted turret guns quite stopped the Hunter. The Hunter’s captain at last understood and signaled clear directions. A false report later circulated that the Hunter had been disrespectful, a report the Monarch's Capt. James Edmund Commerell took pains to deny in print for he knew he was on a unique mission of goodwill. Ref. "In Memoriam, Newspaper Notices of the Death of George Peabody" (New York: 1870), collected by George Harmon Peabody and presented by Charles Breckinridge Peabody (GP's nephews) to the PIB.
Death & Funeral. 106-Approaching Portland, Me. Cont'd. Tuesday morning, Jan. 25, 1870, broke clear and bright. The storm of the last two day left its glittering coat of ice on the Monarch and the Plymouth. At dusk the two ships approached the New England coastline. Thirty miles off Portland, Me., the Plymouth boomed her cannon as a signal of their arrival and of the need for a pilot to guide their docking. GP's remains were near his native land. The long voyage home had almost ended. Ref. Ibid.
Portland Reception Plans
Death & Funeral. 107-Portland Reception Plans, Jan. 25-Feb. 1, 1870. On Jan. 25, 1870, in NYC on his way to Boston and then Peabody, Mass., for GP's final burial, Bishop Charles Pettit McIlvaine wrote to a fellow clergyman about the Portland reception. He also mentioned that the unprecedented funeral was a tribute to philanthropy as represented by GP's example: "A fleet of Government ships under the command of the Admiral of our Navy [D.G. Farragut], has gone out to meet the Monarch, and convey her into Portland. A military escort has been ordered to accompany the body from the port to Danvers. Committees of various State Legislatures, and City Corporations, will be at the funeral, and in all respects very great honours, corresponding with those so handsomely paid in England, will be rendered to Philanthropy in the example of Mr. Peabody." Ref. Charles Pettit McIlvaine, NYC, to Rev. William Carus, Jan. 25, 1870, quoted in William Carus, ed., pp. 299-300. See Persons named.
Death & Funeral. 108-Portland Reception Plans Cont'd. Adm. David Glasgow Farragut was placed in charge of the naval reception at Portland. He acknowledged his orders to the U.S. Navy Secty. George M. Robeson: "I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your communication of the 14th inst. in which you...tender me the management of the Naval part of the obsequies in honor of the late Mr. Peabody." In 1867, while Pres. Andrew Johnson faced impeachment, his political adviser suggested a cabinet reshuffle to save him. Farragut, one of the 16 original PEF trustees, was suggested as U.S. Navy Secty. and GP as U.S. Treasurer. But loyalty to his original cabinet kept Pres. Johnson from this course. Ref. (Farragut in charge): Adm. D.G. Farragut, NYC, to U.S. Navy Secty. George M. Robeson, Washington, D.C., January 15, 1870, "Admirals and Commodores' Letters, Jan.-June 1870," Naval Records, National Archives Ms. For Farragut and GP in a reconstituted Pres. Andrew Johnson cabinet, see Congressional Gold Medal and Resolutions of Praise to GP. Andrew, John Albion.
Death & Funeral. 109-Adm. David Glasgow Farragut. Also, the Portland reception was Farragut's last official duty. He was age 68, then ill with pneumonia, and died seven months later (Aug. 14, 1870). Ref. New York Times, Feb. 27, 1870, p. 3. Spears, p. 370.
Death & Funeral. 110-Maine Legislative Plans. On Dec. 18, 1869, before the Monarch's arrival on Jan. 25, 1870, Maine officials published the following preliminary plans to receive GP's remains: "Two state military companies will act as escort and guard of honor. Flags on state buildings will be lowered to half-mast throughout the funeral fleet's presence. Funeral salutes will be fired from the arsenal guns at Portland and Fort Preble. The executive council and heads of departments are invited to participate." Ref. (Dec. 18, 1869, plans): State of Maine General Order No. 6, Dec. 18, 1869, quoted in Boston Daily Advertiser, Dec. 23, 1869, p. 2, c. 3. Hampshire Telegraph (Portsmouth, England), Jan. 8, 1870, p. 4, c. 3. Maine, State of. Special Order No. 13, dated Dec. 21, 1869, in Maine Adjutant General, p. 39.
Maine Legislative Wrangling
Death & Funeral. 111-Maine Legislative Wrangling. But wrangling arose on Jan. 6, 1870, on a resolution introduced in the Maine House of Representatives requiring the entire legislature, governor, state council, and department heads to attend in a body. This resolution for en masse attendance was argued, tabled (Jan. 6), argued again, and tabled again (Jan. 7). A Joint Select Committee reported adversely on the resolution, saying that funeral plans already taken were ample (Jan. 17). The resolution was again considered and tabled (Jan. 19). A Maine Senate paper ordered the legislature to adjourn the day the funeral fleet landed (Jan. 22). When that Senate order reached the House, some members moved for its indefinite postponement. But a House vote refused indefinite postponement (Jan. 25). Ref. Ibid.
Death & Funeral. 112-Maine Legislative Wrangling Cont'd. Finally, a House and Senate reconciliation committee resolved the dispute: the legislature would adjourn for attendance at the ceremony (Jan. 26-28). It must be said in justice that circumstances not of its own choosing had made the city of Portland and the state of Maine host for an unusual naval reception. Despite debate, delays, and some harsh words, state officials did attend the obsequies in a body. Press reports of the Portland reception ceremonies were laudatory. And Maine bore the inevitable reception costs. Ref. (Attendance en masse?): Maine-a, pp. 13, 41, 63, 78, 85, 107, 112, 116, 124-125, 132. Maine-b, pp. 50, 81, 91, 102, 109, 117, 122, 124-125, 132, 137.
Death & Funeral. 113-Behind the Maine Dispute. A Boston Times article gave one possible answer for the wrangling in the Maine legislature: "It may explain many things concerning the proceedings in the [Maine] Legislature and elsewhere, when it is known that Mr. Peabody, although applied to, refused to subscribe to the Portland fund after the great fire of July 4, 1866. At least it is whispered that this fact had no little influence in disturbing harmonious action concerning the funeral." Ref. (Portland fire): Boston Times, Jan. 30, 1870, p. 2, c. 1.
Death & Funeral. 114-Behind the Maine Dispute Cont'd. Another deeper rooted reason for the dispute was political revenge. Some Maine legislators still believed that GP had been pro-Confederate and anti-Union. This charge had been publicly refuted by N.Y. state newspaper owner and Republican Party leader Thurlow Weed and Ohio Episcopal Bishop Charles Pettit McIlvaine. Both were Pres. Lincoln's emissaries sent to London in Nov. 1861 to keep England and France neutral in the U.S. Civil War. Both published accounts showing how GP had helped them contact British political leaders in Nov. 1861. Both knew GP intimately, talked with him in London, and confirmed his Union loyalty. Still, the charge against GP persisted. Ref. New York Journal of Commerce, Jan. 10, 1870, in PIB news clip album, "In Memoriam, Newspaper Notices of the Death of George Peabody" (New York, 1870), collected by George Harmon Peabody and presented by Charles Breckinridge Peabody (GP's nephews) to the PIB.
Arrival, Portland Harbor
Death & Funeral. 115-Awaiting HMS Monarch at Portland, Me. Adm. Farragut arrived in Portland Jan. 22 with his wife and secretary, was met by the Portland funeral committee, and was escorted to the Falmouth Hotel to rest. Mrs. Farragut visited her son, Lt. Farragut, Third U.S. Artillery, at nearby Fort Preble. Adm. Farragut was informed that day that U.S. monitors Miantonomoh and Terror had left Boston to escort HMS Monarch into Portland harbor. That evening Farragut visited Portland City Hall to inspect funeral decorations. Portland, full of young military men and thousands of curious visitors, was in a gay mood. Not knowing when the Monarch would arrive, time hung heavy. Someone organized a ball for the military in Fluento Hall. At 10:30 P.M., Jan. 25, at the height of the merrymaking a messenger from Adm. Farragut's headquarters at Falmouth Hotel burst in to announce, "The Monarch has arrived." Ref. Ibid.
Death & Funeral. 116-HMS Monarch at Portland, Me., Jan. 25, 1870. Rain and hail kept the Monarch outside Portland until harbor pilot Capt. Willard brought her to Portland's outer harbor. USS Plymouth's Capt. William E. Macomb came ashore that night, reported to Adm. Farragut at the Hotel Falmouth, met with city and state officials, and described the transatlantic voyage. On Jan. 26, 1870, 10:30 A.M., the Plymouth's guns saluted the receiving fleet of U.S. monitors. Cannons were fired from nearby Fort Preble. Crowds watched from shore. HMS Monarch's Capt. John E. Commerell called on Adm. Farragut at the Falmouth Hotel. Commerell said that it was the desire of Her Majesty's government to have the remains stay on board for two days as a final mark of respect (Jan. 27-28, 1870). Farragut consulted with Maine Gov. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain (1828-1914), the Portland authorities, and various funeral committees. It was decided that the remains would not be landed until Sat., Jan. 29, 1870. See Chamberlain, Joshua Lawrence.
Last Monarch Honors
Death & Funeral. 117-Last Monarch Honors, Jan. 27-28, 1870. Adm. Farragut sent dispatches on Portland reception developments to U.S. Navy Secty. George M. Robeson (Jan. 22 and 26, 1870): a-HMS Monarch and USS Plymouth had arrived at Portland Jan. 25, were welcomed as directed by U.S. monitors Miantonomah and Terror, and the revenue cutter Mahoning. b-Monarch's Capt. John E. Commerell informed Adm. Farragut at the Falmouth Hotel (Jan. 26) of his government's wish that as a final mark of respect, GP's coffin remain on public view aboard for two days, Jan. 27-28. c-This wish was granted so that GP's coffin would be transferred on Jan. 29 from the Monarch to Portland City Hall. Ref. Adm. David Glasgow Farragut to U.S. Navy Secty. George M. Robeson, Jan. 22 and 26, 1870, "Admirals and Commodores' Letters January-June 1870," Naval Records, National Archives Ms.
Death & Funeral. 118-Last Monarch Honors, Jan. 27-28, 1870, Cont'd. Farragut wrote U.S. Navy Secty. George M. Robeson (Jan. 22 and 26, 1870): "I have the honor to report the arrival of the Monarch and Plymouth, with the remains of the late Mr. Peabody, on the evening of the 25th inst. The night was tempestuous but the pilot succeeded in bringing them into the outer harbor. "On the following morning your orders were carried out by the Monitors going out and escorting them in accordance to the programme laid down by myself. "After consulting with the Governor of the State, the authorities of Portland and the Trustees, it was arranged that the body will not be landed until Saturday [Jan. 29] at which time I shall see that it is done with all the solemnity I can command. I have retained a tug (Leyden) from Boston and required an additional one from Portsmouth (Port Fire).... "I shall visit the Monarch tomorrow accompanied by the State and City authorities." Ref. Ibid.
Death & Funeral. 119-Last Monarch Honors, Jan. 27-28, 1870, Cont'd. On Thursday and Friday, Jan. 27-28, honor sentinels stood guard over GP's coffin on the Monarch. Thousands of visitors lined Portland harbor to gaze at the assembled naval armada. Tender craft, tugs, and small vessels carried all who wished to view the coffin in the mortuary chapel aboard the Monarch. In Annapolis, Md., a legislative committee drafted resolutions on the death of GP, who had lived in Baltimore as a young merchant for 22 years (1815-37). The resolutions read in part: "...his name will stand preeminent in history...generations yet unborn will learn to venerate his memory...." Md. sent two senators and two representatives to attend the ceremonies at Portland and the funeral at Peabody, Mass. Ref. Md., State of-e, pp. 23, 154-156.
Death & Funeral. 120-Winthrop from Boston; Relatives from Ohio. Among those in Portland for the receiving ceremonies were Robert Charles Winthrop, who would deliver GP's eulogy on Feb. 8 in Peabody, Mass., and a Boston citizens' committee. They had left Boston on Jan. 26. Also traveling east for the final service and burial in Peabody, Mass., were Jeremiah Dodge Peabody (1805-77), only surviving of the four Peabody brothers, and nieces and nephews from Zanesville, Ohio. Ref. (Winthrop from Boston; relatives from Ohio): New York Times, Jan. 27, 1870, p. 1, c. 5-7.
Transfer: Monarch to Portland City Hall
Death & Funeral. 121-From Monarch to Portland City Hall, Jan. 29, 1870. After two last days' lying in state aboard the Monarch, GP's remains were transferred from the Monarch to Portland City Hall Saturday morning, Jan. 29, 1870. At 10:45 A.M., with the funeral fleet a half mile out of Portland harbor, 12 Monarch seamen raised the coffin from its dais in the mortuary chapel, placed it on a wheeled bier and brought it to the main deck by means of an inclined plane. With marines drawn to attention, the drummer sounded a muted roll and the ship's band played the somber "Death March" from Saul. Officers and crew bared their heads, the boatswain's whistle piped shrilly, the coffin was made fast with a roped rig, and was swung over the side of the Monarch to the Leyden. Ref. Mortuary Honors, pp. 12-24.
Death & Funeral. 122-From Monarch to Portland City Hall, Jan. 29, 1870 Cont'd. The steam tug Iris pulled the Leyden, which bore the body, followed by a double line of 22 small craft. The armada made a striking naval display as it covered the half mile from the outer harbor to Portland's Eastern Wharf. Mournful music wafted across the water and flashing gunfire echoed from Fort Preble. Scarlet uniforms drew the eye in ranked array and rows of oars were held aloft like wooden soldiers. The steam tug Iris approached the wharf, cast off her lines, and slipped out of the way. The two lines of boats closed ranks bow to stern along the Eastern Wharf. Adm. Farragut and his staff, British marines, and the Monarch's officers stepped ashore. Twelve British sailors lifted the coffin from the Leyden, marched in slow step bearing the coffin on their shoulders, and moved in solemnity to the end of the wharf. U.S sailors from the Mahoning relieved the 12 British pallbearers and placed the coffin in a waiting hearse. Ref. Ibid.
Handing Over GP’s Remains
Death & Funeral. 123-Capt. Commerell To Maine Gov. Chamberlain, Jan. 29, 1870. HMS Monarch's Capt. Commerell saluted Maine Gov. Chamberlain and said (in part): "The remains of this good man were placed in my charge by Mr. Motley, Minister of the United States to the Court of St. James. The body was conveyed from the country of his adoption to the land of his birth. Governor Chamberlain, into your hands I now deliver my sacred trust. The sufferance [workman], the widow and the orphan on both sides of the Atlantic, both North and South, will henceforth bless [his] name...." Ref. Ibid.
Death & Funeral. 124-Maine Gov. Chamberlain's Reply, Jan. 29, 1870. Gov. Chamberlain replied (in part): "I receive this sacred trust and express the appreciation of the American people for the tender honors with which the Queen of England restored to its native land this precious dust. England honored this man while he lived. When he ceased, she laid him with her Kings. You return without him but you bear a nation's gratitude, reverence, and love." The funeral procession then moved slowly from the wharf to Portland City Hall where the coffin was placed on a catafalque and an honor guard was posted around it. Through Saturday and Sunday, Jan. 29-30, the remains lay in state behind closed doors. Ref. Ibid.
Death & Funeral. 125-Portland City Hall. On Monday, Jan. 31, the Portland City Hall auditorium was opened to a constant stream of visitors. This, the second largest city hall auditorium in the U.S., had been elaborately prepared by marine artist Harrison Bird Brown (1831-1915). Brown had worked for two weeks to convert the auditorium into a solemn and striking mausoleum. The auditorium, measuring 130 feet by 80 feet by 40 feet, required 7,000 yards of black alpaca and broadcloth to cover the ceiling. In all he used 30,000 yards of cloth, draped with velvet, containing silver stars, white rosettes, and heavy tassels. Nodding plumes brightened the ominous black. At the far end of the interior stood the superb catafalque on which the GP coffin rested. See Harrison Bird Brown. Ref. (Portland City Hall): Eastern Argus (Portland, Me.), Jan. 15, 1870, p. 3, c. 2. Mortuary Honors, pp. 4-7, 12-34. New York Times, Feb. 2, 1870, p. 5, c. 1.
Death & Funeral. 126-Portland City Hall Cont'd. The constant stream of visitors passed quietly by this regally somber structure. On either side of the catafalque were the national symbols of England and the U.S. Silver escutcheons studded the catafalque and bore mottoes. One read: "Kind hearts are more than coronets." Another: "But the greatest of these is Charity"; and still another: "Lay up for yourselves treasures in Heaven." Rare flowers specially procured and guarded against the cold filled silver vases three feet high. Their fragrance wafted through the elaborately and somberly draped auditorium. Ref. Ibid.
Portland Lawyer's Diary Entry on GP’s Funeral
Death & Funeral. 127-William Willis's Diary. Prominent Portland, Me., lawyer, state senator, Portland, Me., mayor (1857), civic leader, historian, and businessman William Willis (1794-1870) wrote of the Portland reception of GP's remains in four pages of his diary (the diary in four volumes, covers Oct. 14, 1844 to Feb. 13, 1870). William Willis, then age 76, a year older than the deceased GP, was a pallbearer of GP's coffin on Feb. 1, 1870, the day the remains left Portland by train for Peabody, Mass. Ref. Diary of William Willis, Vol. 4 (March 1, 1865 to Feb. 13, 1870), pp. 215-217, Portland Room, Portland, Me., Public Library.
Death & Funeral. 128-Willis's Diary, Cont'd. "Saturday Jan 15, 1870: …The City is making elaborate preparations for the reception of the body of Mr. Peabody. The City Hall is simply & beautifully draped with a catafalque to receive the corpse & the State furnishes a funeral car specially constructed for the occasion.…" "Tuesday Jan 18, 1870: …The draping & decorations of the City Hall is said to be in a very high & chaste style of art, under the supervision of H. B. Brown [Portland, Me., marine artist Harrison Bird Brown, 1831-1915]…." Ref. Ibid.
Death & Funeral. 129-Willis's Diary, Cont'd. "Wednesday Jan 19,1870: …All the people are awaiting the arrival of the Peabody fleet, which is hourly expected. Admiral Farragut is ordered here by government to do the honors for the Amer. fleet. The City Hall is most elaborately and beautifully decorated; The funeral car is in fine style of drapery & finish; but people are asking what all this parade is for. Mr. Peabody did nothing for Portland after our great fire; he declined doing any thing altho' then in the country. These questions whispered now will have a hoarser voice by & by…." Ref. Ibid.
Death & Funeral. 130-Willis's Diary, Cont'd. "Saturday Jan 22, 1870:…The American fleet was expected in port this evening…. "Sunday Jan 23, 1870:… The American fleet arrived last even'g, the Miantonomah, Terror [two U.S. monitors, italics added] & 2 sp.[ecial?] tugs. Admiral Farragut & wife arrived yesterday P. M." "Monday Jan 24, 1870: … The curiosity people are gathering here for the Peabody ceremony. It is said that J? B. Brown [?marine artist Harrison Bird Brown] is to give a brilliant reception this week." Ref. Ibid.
Death & Funeral. 131-Willis's Diary, Cont'd. "Wednesday Jan 26,1870: …The English ship of war Monarch & Plymouth arrived in our harbor last even'g at 7 o'cl. with the body of Mr. Peabody. They were escorted this morning by the Amer. ships Miantonomah & Terror to their anchorage within port ? Great numbers of persons were on the hills & wharves to see their movements. The arrangement is that the body remains 2 days on board the Monarch in State where it will receive visitors. After that it is taken under State escort headed by the Gov. & State to the City Hall where it will remain two more days on exhibition when it will be taken under a large escort by the relatives & friends to its place of sepulchre? at Peabody where final & elaborate services will be rendered." [italics for ships names added]. Ref. Ibid.
Death & Funeral. 132-Willis's Diary, Cont'd. "Thursday Jan 27, 1870: …Visitors numerous to the fleet to see the body of Peabody in State on board of the Monarch. Have not been out." "Friday Jan 28, 1870: …Have been appointed one of the Pall bearers for the Peabody funeral Feb. 1." "Saturday Jan 29, 1870: … Mr. Peabody's remains were formally taken about 11 o'clock from the Monarch & conveyed under a marine & State military procession to the City Hall, where they will be until Tuesday fore noon when they will be moved with great State under a large military & civil escort to the North Station to be transported to Peabody for final interment." …. [Italics for ship's name added]. Ref. Ibid.
Death & Funeral. 133-Willis's Diary, Cont'd. "Tuesday Feb 1, 1870: A brisk snow storm this morning continued till 11 o'clock. Notwithstanding this the funeral service for Mr. Peabody went in admirable taste & order, attended by the English & American officers and a numerous multitude of persons from abroad of distinction & very large collection of persons in the streets. I went out for the first [time] for near a fortnight, as one of the pall bearers. The devotional services were performed by Bishop Neely, attended by Mr. [Rev. J.J.] Harrison, Chaplain of the Monarch & Mr. Hayes, Bishop's assist. 5? Comp[anies] of U.S. troops were out in good style & 2 [?battalions of] militia. There was no jar, no confusion, but every [thing] went on in a most satisfactory manner…." [Italics for ship's name added. Rev. John Jacob Harrison, 1822-88, was a Royal Navy chaplain]. Ref. Ibid. See Harrison, John Jacob. Willis, William.
GP's British Property in Court
Death & Funeral. 134-GP's British Property in Court. While GP's remains lay in state in Portland City Hall, news reached the U.S. in late Jan. 1870 about land GP owned at Stockwell near London. GP's British property was the subject of a British court inquiry, the gist of which follows. GP's last will left ƒ200,000 ($1,000,000) to the Peabody Donation Fund, which built apartments for London's working poor. Part of this gift was GP's real estate at Stockwell, south of the London, Chatham, and Dover Railway. Opportunity to buy the land (13 acres, one rod, and 14 perches) came in 1866. GP paid ƒ15,622 ($78,110 ) for it and included it as part of his gift to the Peabody Donation trust. Ref. "George Peabody Escheat Papers, 1869-1870," Treasurer-Solicitor's Office, London.
Death & Funeral. 135-GP's British Property in Court Cont'd. Sir Curtis Miranda Lampson, long-time business friend and Peabody Donation Fund trustee, and others, told GP at the time that because he was not a British subject, he could not legally buy the land, obtain title to it, own it, or dispose of it. An arrangement was made whereby Sir Curtis Lampson, Vt.-born but who had become a naturalized British subject, bought the land in his name using GP's money. The property in theory was GP's and he gave it to the Peabody Donation Fund. Ref. Ibid.
Death & Funeral. 136-GP's British Property in Court Cont'd. But British law held that on the death of a foreigner property held by that foreigner must be escheated (returned) to the Crown. This now happened. But it was understood from the first that after the facts were legally determined, the Crown would turn over the property to the trustees. Because GP at death had been cast as a hero and because British mortmain law (death gifts of land or property) was not generally known in the U.S., some U.S. newspapers were critical of this British seizure of GP's property. Ref. Ibid. "In Memoriam, Newspaper Notices of the Death of George Peabody" (New York, 1870), collected by George Harmon Peabody and presented by Charles Breckinridge Peabody (GP's nephews) to the PIB.
Death & Funeral. 137-GP's British Property in Court Cont'd. Sir Curtis Miranda Lampson's sworn statement in court easily settled the matter: "I knew the late Mr Peabody intimately from the year 1837 until his death.... He was never naturalized in England and had no permanent abode here. He lived at a hotel or lodgings or with friends, sometimes in England, sometimes in America but never had any settled establishment. He declined to accept an English title or to be naturalized...." Some readers of Lampson's statement felt a touch of sadness in Lampson statement. Ref. Ibid. New York Times, Jan. 25, 1870, p. 5, c. 3-4. Zanesville Daily Courier (Zanesville, Ohio), Jan. 28, 1870, p. 2, c. 4.
Death & Funeral. 138-GP's British Property in Court Cont'd. The court found that GP was an alien who had purchased the land under arrangement with Sir Curtis Lampson, had given the land to the Peabody Donation Fund and, as the property was escheated to the Crown, by royal prerogative that property was turned over to the trustees. Thus the matter ended, except for the touching and sad light it shed on GP as a bachelor-banker who lived alone and somewhat apart. Ref. Ibid. Lancet, Vol. 1 (Jan. 22, 1870), p. 134. New York Tribune, Jan. 20, 1870, p. 4, c. 5. European Mail (London), Jan. 23, 1870.
Alabama Claims Again
Death & Funeral. 139-Alabama Claims Again. Public interest, sympathy, and admiration during GP's last illness, death, and funeral softened but did not solve Alabama Claims differences. The Paul Mall Gazetteeditorialized: "The peace between America and England does not depend on the memory of George Peabody's benevolence. It depends on the behavior of both nations. If one wronged the other, respect for George Peabody would not stop the injured country from asserting its rights." Ref. (Pall Mall Gazette): quoted in Salem Gazette (Salem, Mass.), Dec. 7, 1869.
Death & Funeral. 140-Alabama Claims Again Cont'd. GP's death and funeral provided a sympathetic, emotional tie, reduced conflict, and made negotiation preferable, as stated in the Portsmouth Times and Naval Gazette: "As to the 'Alabama question' however, it seems as far from [a] satisfactory settlement as ever.... Postponement is, nevertheless, decidedly preferable to open rupture, and while the body of the lamented George Peabody...is being borne with almost Imperial honours across the ocean to American shores, a message of peace as it were between his two Fatherlands, may not all parties and factions for once forget minor differences, and united in the assertion, as well as the sentiment, that with the native country of that good citizen of the United States and great benefactor of the poor of the United Kingdom we in England shall not readily quarrel." Ref. Portsmouth Times and Naval Gazette (Portsea, England), Dec. 25, 1869, p. 4, c. 2. See Death & Funeral. 189-Final Thought (below).
GP Statue Rumors
Death & Funeral. 141-GP Statue in Rome? News report of a GP statue in Rome proved false. The rumor probably arose from GP's visit to Rome in Feb. 1868, his audience with the Pope, and his gift of $19,300 to San Spirito Hospital, a Vatican charitable hospital. GP was in Rome mainly for sittings in U.S. sculptor William Wetmore Story's (1819-95) Rome studio for the GP seated statue Story was preparing for placement on Threadneedle St., near the Royal Exchange (unveiled July 23, 1869, by the Prince of Wales). GP and his philanthropic advisor Robert Charles Winthrop (1809-94) were introduced to Pope Pius IX (Giovanni Maria Mastai-Ferretti, 1792-1878, Pope during 1846-78) about Feb. 24 or 25, 1868, by former U.S. Legation in Rome Secty. James Clinton Hooker. For GP's Feb. 1868 Rome visit and audience with the Pope, see Corcoran, William Wilson.
Death & Funeral. 142-GP Statue in Rome? Cont'd. Leaving the Pope, James Clinton Hooker introduced GP and Winthrop to Cardinal Giacomo Antonelli (1806-76), who told them of the Vatican's charitable hospital of San Spirito in Rome. That night GP sent the cardinal his gift of $19,300. No statue of GP materialized in Rome. GP and Winthrop subsequently visited Nice, France, and Paris, France, where both were received at the court of Napoleon III (Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, 1808-73) and Empress Eugénie (1826-1920). See Eustis, Louise Morris (née Corcoran). Eustis, George. Persons mentioned. Rome, Italy.
Death & Funeral. 143-GP Statue in NYC? A move for a GP statue in NYC began on Saturday, Nov. 20, 1869. Some NYC merchants and bankers met in the N.Y. Stock Exchange, proposed that an association be formed and funds collected for a GP statue in NYC's Central Park. The meeting was short lived after a few opponents spoke strongly against the proposal and walked out. Another attempt was made on Tuesday, Nov. 23, 1869, by banker J.H. Bloodgood at 22 William St., NYC. An association was formed, funds were raised, a subscription list was published. But this effort also failed; the main reason later given was that the mounting international honors offended patriotic believers in republican simplicity. No GP statue materialized in NYC. Ref. New York Herald, Nov. 24, 1869, p. 3, c. 4. Dundee Courier and Argus (Dundee, Scotland), Dec. 14, 1869, p. 3, c. 3. Morning Herald (London), Dec. 9, 1869, p. 6, c. 2. London Times, Dec. 9, 1869, p. 4, c. 2.
Funeral Train to Peabody, Mass.
Death & Funeral. 144-City Hall Through Portland Streets, Feb. 1, 1870. Snow fell the morning of Feb. 1, 1870, the day of transfer from Portland City Hall to the funeral train. At City Hall prayers for the dead were read from the Episcopal Church ritual. Three hundred voices sang choruses from the Messiah and Mozart's Requiem. GP's coffin was borne out of City Hall and placed on a funeral hearse which traversed Congress, Pearl, Middle, State, Danforth, and Commercial Streets, Portland. About noon while snow still fell, 12 Plymouth sailors placed the coffin aboard Eastern Railroad funeral train's car No. 77. Ref. New York Times, Feb. 2, 1870, p. 5, c. 2 and Feb. 9, 1870, p. 1, c. 5.
Death & Funeral. 145-Funeral Train to Peabody, Mass., Feb. 1, 1870. Four companies of the Fifth U.S. Artillery Battalion filled the first five cars, followed by official delegates and the press. At 1:00 P.M., bells tolled, the band played a dirge, and the funeral train moved through the swirling snow from Portland to Kennebunk, Me.; and to Portsmouth, N.H., where there was a switch of engines. Ref. (Eastern Railroad funeral train timetable): Peabody Papers, PEM, Salem, Mass. Mortuary Honors, p. 24.
Death & Funeral. 146-Funeral Train to Peabody, Mass., Feb. 1, 1870 Cont'd. The new engine bore the name "George Peabody," not for GP but for a distant cousin of the banker-philanthropist with the same name, George Peabody (1804-92), president of the Eastern Railroad, the son of Joseph Peabody (1757-1844) of Salem, Mass. Ref. (Switch to "George Peabody" engine, Portsmouth, N.H.): Eastern Argus (Portland, Me.), Feb. 2, 1870, p. 3, c. 2-3.
Death & Funeral. 147-Funeral Train to Peabody, Mass., Feb. 1, 1870 Cont'd. Car No. 77's interior had earlier been specially decorated in Salem, Mass., by Col. William Beals (d. 1916) of Boston. The seats had been removed, the interior draped with black serge and white alpaca, the windows and doors covered with drapery, and the floor carpeted in black and green. The interior roof was hung with folds of alternate black and white cloth. At either end of the car were British and U.S. flags. In the center the coffin rested on a black velveted dais ten feet long. Decorating the dais were silver bullion rings, hanging tassels, rosettes, and heavy silver lace. The whole was an imposingly regal funeral car. At 2:00 P.M., the funeral train passed through Newburyport, Mass., where GP at age 16 had worked in older brother David Peabody's (1790-1841) dry goods shop, through Ipswich and Beverly, and at 5:00 P.M. entered Peabody, Mass. Ref. Ibid. See: Beals, William.
Death & Funeral. 148-Peabody, Mass., Feb. 1-8, 1870. Boston decorator C.W. Barth and staff transformed the Peabody Institute library reading room into a funeral reception hall. The coffin rested on a canopied catafalque, draped in mourning. Above and near the casket, in a specially built case, were displayed the honors GP had received in life: a-the porcelainized miniature portrait Queen Victoria had specially made of herself for GP (delivered March 1867), b-the Congressional gold medal and resolution of praise for his PEF (Congressional bill introduced and signed, March 5-18, 1867), c-the freedom of the city of London in a gold box (July 10, 1862), parchment scrolls of honorary membership in the ancient guilds of d-Clothworkers' (July 2, 1862) and e-Fishmongers' (April 19, 1866), along with the lunch box he carried each day from lodging to office. Ref. (Boston decorator C.W. Barth and staff): Peabody Press (Peabody, Mass.), Jan. 19, 1870, p. 2, c. 2. Ref. (GP honors kept at Peabody Institute Library, Peabody, Mass.): New York Times, Feb. 2, 1870, p. 5, c. 1-3.
Death & Funeral. 149-Funeral Invitations. Peabody, Mass., and Danvers, Mass., town funeral committees sent invitations to GP's relatives, friends, trustees, and local and state civic leaders and distinguished New England officials and persons. The one received by long time business friend William Wilson Corcoran read: "The funeral of the late Mr. George Peabody will take place in this, his native town, soon after the arrival of his remains in this country. The services will be held at the South Congregational Church.... "A committee will be in attendance at the Institute, upon the day of the funeral, to furnish tickets of admission to the church...." Ref. (W.W. Corcoran's invitation to GP's funeral): Committee on Invitation, Peabody, Mass., to William Wilson Corcoran, no date, Corcoran Papers XVI, Accession No. 105113, Library of Congress Ms., quoted in Corcoran, pp. 310-311.
Queen Victoria's son Prince Arthur at GP’s Final Funeral
Death & Funeral. 150-Queen Victoria's Son, Prince Arthur. Queen Victoria's son Prince Arthur (William Patrick Albert Arthur, 1850-1942, Duke of Connaught) attended the GP funeral in Peabody, Mass., on Feb. 8, 1870. Prince Arthur was on a Canadian tour when in mid-Nov. 1869, British Ambassador to the U.S. Sir Edward Thornton (1817-1906) received Queen Victoria's approval for Prince Arthur to visit in the U.S. Prince Arthur left Montreal, Canada, on Jan. 20, 1870, went to Washington, D.C., where he met Pres. U.S. Grant, and was in NYC on Jan. 29, 1870. A Jan. 27 letter from his military aide, Lt. Col. (later Sir) Howard Cawfurd Elphinestone (1829-90), to Queen Victoria's advisor in England, contained the first mention of Prince Arthur's possible attendance at GP's funeral: "Should Mr. Peabody's funeral take place soon after that, Col. Elphinestone thought it would be a gracious act on the part of the Prince to attend." Prince Arthur left NYC on Feb. 5, 1870, for Boston and left Boston on Feb. 8 for Peabody, Mass. Refs. below.
Death & Funeral. 151-Queen Victoria's Son, Prince Arthur Cont'd. Ref. Draft of letter, British Ambassador to the U.S. Edward Thornton to Foreign Office, probably mid-Nov. 1869, Foreign Office 5/1163, No. 399, Public Record Office, London. Lt. Col. H. Elphinestone, British Legation, Washington, D.C., to Gen. Charles Grey [1804-70] for Queen Victoria, Jan. 27, 1870, Royal Archives, Additional Ms. A/15/1557, Windsor Castle, England. Lt. Col. H. Elphinestone, Railway Station, Peabody, Mass., to Gen. Grey for Queen Victoria, Feb. 8, 1870, Royal Archives, Additional Ms. A/15/1571, Windsor Castle, England. [Elphinestone, Howard Cawfurd].
Will Robert E. Lee Attend?
Death & Funeral. 152-Will Robert E. Lee Attend? Prince Arthur's attendance at GP's funeral added a royal touch and attracted favorable press attention. Former Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's (1807-70) attendance (he had been invited to the funeral) was uncertain and would have been controversial. Robert E. Lee was then president of Washington College, Lexington, Va. (president since 1865, renamed Washington and Lee Univ. in 1871). He had been with GP three months earlier in their first and only meeting during GP's six-week visit (July 23-Aug. 29) to White Sulphur Springs health spa in W.Va. This visit occurred amid publicity after GP doubled his PEF donation to $2 million, June 29, 1869. For GP, Lee, and others at White Sulphur Springs, W.Va., see Corcoran, William Wilson. Lee, Robert E.
Death & Funeral. 153-Lee, GP, Others, W.Va., (July 23-Aug. 29, 1869). Gathered at White Sulphur Springs, W.Va., by chance, were a remarkable group of northern and southern statesmen, educators, and military leaders. GP and Lee talked and dined together and were photographed together and with other prominent guests (Aug. 12). Resolutions of praise for GP, composed by former Va. Gov. and Confederate Gen. Henry Alexander Wise (1806-76), were read to GP amid a crowd on July 28, 1869. A Peabody Ball was spontaneously held on Aug 11, 1869, whose jollity GP, too ill to attend, heard from his cottage. The informal talks that took place on the education needs of the South set a precedent for later significant conferences on southern educational needs. Besides a small gift to help restore Lee's church in Lexington, Va., GP gave Lee's college a gift of Va. bonds for a mathematics professorship, bonds which, when redeemed 12 years later (1881), totaled $60,000. GP, accompanied by Lee for a short distance, left White Sulphur Springs on Aug. 30, 1869, on a special railroad car provided by B&O Railroad Pres. John Work Garrett (1820-84). Ref. Ibid.
Death & Funeral. 154-R.E. Lee on GP's Death. In Lexington, Va., reading of GP's death in London on Nov. 4, 1869, Robert E. Lee wrote (Nov. 10, 1869) to GP's nephew George Peabody Russell (1835-1909), who had been with GP in White Sulphur Springs and there met Lee: "The announcement of the death of your uncle, Mr. George Peabody, has been received with the deepest regret wherever his name and benevolence are known; and nowhere have his generous deeds--restricted to no country, section or sect--elicited more heartfelt admiration than at the South. He stands alone in history for the benevolent and judicious distribution of his great wealth, and his memory has become entwined in the affections of millions of his fellow-citizens in both hemispheres." Ref. Robert E. Lee, Lexington, Va., to George Peabody Russell, Nov. 10, 1869, quoted in Salem Gazette (Salem, Mass.), Nov. 30, 1869, p. 2, c. 1.
Death & Funeral. 155-R.E. Lee on GP's Death Cont'd.: "I beg, in my own behalf, and in behalf of the Trustees and Faculty of Washington College, Va., which was not forgotten by him in his act of generosity, to tender the tribute of our unfeigned sorrow at his death. With great respect, Your obedient servant R.E. Lee." Ref. Ibid.
Death & Funeral. 156-Lee Too Ill to Attend. Lee was invited to attend GP's funeral service in the South Congregational Church, Peabody, Mass., and final burial in Harmony Grove Cemetery, Salem. But Lee, then ill and himself a year from death, had to decline. He explained his condition in a Jan. 26, 1870, letter to mutual friend William Wilson Corcoran, who had been with them at White Sulphur Springs: "I am sorry I cannot attend the funeral obsequies of Mr. Peabody. It would be some relief to witness the respect paid to his remains, and to participate in commemorating his virtues; but I am unable to undertake the journey. I have been sick all the winter, and am still under medical treatment. I particularly regret that I shall not have the pleasure of seeing you. Two trustees of Washington College will attend the funeral. I hope you can join them." Ref. Ibid.
Death & Funeral. 157-Concern about Lee's Possible Attendance. The same day Lee wrote to Corcoran (Jan. 26, 1870), one of the two Washington College trustees who planned to attend also wrote Corcoran: "I first thought that General Lee should not go, but have now changed my mind. Some of us believe that if you advise the General to attend he would do so. Use your own discretion in this matter." Ref. Ibid.
Death & Funeral. 158-R.C. Winthrop's Concern that Lee Might Attend. Robert Charles Winthrop, who was to deliver GP's funeral eulogy on Feb. 8, 1870, was also concerned about rumors that Lee might attend. Winthrop and others feared that a demonstration against Lee might mar the ceremony. On Feb. 2, 1870, Winthrop wrote two letters marked private and confidential, the first to Baltimorean John Pendleton Kennedy (1795-1870): "There is apprehension here, that if Lee should come to the funeral, something unpleasant might occur, which would be as painful to us as to him. Would you contact friends to impart this to the General? Please do not mention that the suggestion came from me." Ref. Ibid.
Death & Funeral. 159-R.C. Winthrop's Concern that Lee Might Attend Cont'd. Winthrop's second letter to Corcoran read: "I write to you in absolute confidence. Some friends of ours, whose motives cannot be mistaken, are very anxious that Genl. Lee should not come to the funeral next week. They have also asked me to suggest that. Still there is always apprehension that from an irresponsible crowd there might come some remarks which would be offensive to him and painful to us all. I am sure he would be the last person to involve himself or us, needlessly, in a doubtful position on such an occasion. The newspapers at first said that he was not coming. Now, there is an intimation that he is. I know of no one who could more effectively give the right direction to his views than yourself. Your relation to Mr. Peabody & to Mr. Lee would enable you to ascertain his purposes & shape his course wisely.... I know of no one else to rely on." Ref. Ibid.
Death & Funeral. 160-Lee Too Ill to Attend. Lee wrote his daughter Mildred Lee (1846-1904) the same day as Winthrop's letters (Feb. 2, 1870) that he was too ill to attend: "I am sorry that I could not attend Mr. Peabody's funeral, but I did not feel able to undertake the journey, especially at this season." Corcoran replied to Winthrop that Lee had no intention of coming. He could not imagine, he wrote, that so good and great a man as Lee would receive anything but a kind reception. Corcoran himself was ill. He wrote to Lee his regret that he could not attend to pay his respects to "my valued old friend." But he read with sad interest of Winthrop's eulogy and of GP's final burial. Ref. Ibid.
Fitch Poole's Diary on GP’s Death and Final Funeral
Death & Funeral. 161-Fitch Poole's Diary. Fitch Poole (1803-73), first librarian, Peabody Institute Library, Peabody, Mass., kept a diary. His short entries from GP's death to final eulogy, funeral, and burial are as follows: "1869, Nov. 4: Thursday. Geo. Peabody died at 11 & 1/2 o'clock in London. Nov. 5: News came this day of the death of Geo. Peabody last night 1/2 past 11 o'clock in London. Closed the Institute. Nov. 7: ...Saw Mrs. Daniels about funeral [GP's sister, Mrs. Judith née Peabody Daniels, 1799-1879]. Nov. 8: Closed Institute one week. Front portion in mourning. 1870, Jan. 31: Went to Portland. Large no. of visitors from abroad. Snow. P.M. Feb. 1: Storm continued. Committee called at Mayor's office and at City Hall where funeral exercises were held." Ref. Fitch Poole's Diary, PEM, Salem, Mass.; also quoted in [Poole, Fitch], pp. 58-59.
Death & Funeral. 162-Fitch Poole's Diary Cont'd.: "At 1 o'clock started for home. Feb. 3: At Institute. Many visitors. Got out program with Abbott. Feb. 4: Very cold. About zero. Great throngs at Institute. Eve'g. Committee at Institute. Got my tickets. Feb. 5: Snow and variable. At Institute. 6617 visitors. Eve'g. Committee met. Got my 5 tickets. Feb. 6: ...Bushby & Hart [photographers] taking views in Library room. Feb. 7: At Institute. Over 8000 visitors. People busy making preparations for tomorrow. Feb. 8: Cloudy & wet snow storm. Town full of strangers. Several of our friends here.... Eve'g. tired out." Ref. Ibid.
Insufficient U.S. Govt. Representation at GP’s Funeral
Death & Funeral. 163-McIlvaine on Insufficient U.S. Govt. Representation. The British government was represented by Prince Arthur and his retinue, British Ambassador to the U.S. Edward Thornton and his staff, and HMS Monarch's Capt. John E. Commerell and his officers. Both Ohio Episcopal Bishop Charles Pettit McIlvaine, resting at Robert Charles Winthrop's Brookline, Mass., home, after the Portland, Me., ceremonies, and Winthrop, who would give the final eulogy, mentioned the lack of U.S. government representation to U.S. Secty. of State Hamilton Fish (1809-93), a PEF trustee.
Death & Funeral. 164-McIlvaine on Insufficient U.S. Govt. Representation Cont'd. McIlvaine wrote Fish: "There is want of proper representation of the government at the final service next Tuesday at Peabody. Admiral Farragut is exhausted and unable to attend. Since the British minister and Prince Arthur will be there it is important to our own credit for the United States government to be represented. The popular feeling exceeds my expectation and would well entertain even the appearance of the President at the funeral [Pres. U.S. Grant was also a PEF trustee]." Ref. Charles Pettit McIlvaine, Brookline, Mass., to Hamilton Fish, Feb. 2, 1870, "Correspondence of Hamilton Fish," LXVII (January 6-February 22, 1870), Fish Papers, Accession Nos. 9512 and 9513, Library of Congress Ms.
Death & Funeral. 165-Winthrop on Insufficient U.S. Govt. Representation. Winthrop wrote similarly to Secty. Fish: "I returned from Portland last evening. The ceremonies were admirably conducted. Delays were tedious but unavoidable. The present delay at Peabody, Massachusetts, is due to a request of George Peabody himself. He had told his friends he would like to rest for a week in his native town before being put under the ground. Admiral Farragut returned to New York exhausted. I hope the Peabody funeral goes as well as it did in Portland. Prince Arthur, Minister Edward Thornton, and Captain Commerell are to be there. Pity that some chiefs of the United States military or the civil government cannot be there. The Chairman of the Danvers committee came to see me and asked if you have given the order for a battalion of regular soldiers to be here." "I wish you could attend yourself, or President Grant and General Sherman. It would lessen the embarrassment of the Prince and British minister being there." Ref. Robert Charles Winthrop, Brookline, Mass., to Hamilton Fish, February 2, 1870, LXVII (January 6-February 22, 1870), Fish Papers, Accession Nos. 9514 and 9517, Library of Congress Ms.
GP’s Funeral Costs
Death & Funeral. 166-Funeral Costs. GP's known funeral costs include: a-Expenses listed in Peabody Papers, Peabody Essex Institute, Salem, Mass.: ƒ48, one shilling, and seven pence, then equivalent to about $240.00. b-Cost at Westminster Abbey, London, funeral service, Nov. 12, 1869: ƒ130 pounds, 13 shillings, and ten pence, then equivalent to about $653.50, included fees for the sacristies, vergers, bearers, bell ringers, almsmen, porters, mourners, and the price of fabrics, candles, and ninety pairs of white gloves (GP's $653.50 Westminster Abbey funeral cost was just over twice as much as the next Abbey funeral of British novelist Charles Dickens, 1812-70, which cost about $303.00). c-Cost paid by the state of Maine: March 21, 1870, firing salutes at GP obsequies, $24.97. April 6, 1870, hotel bill for special committees, $2,178.83. Aug. 30, 1870, Portland Mechanic Blues for escort and guard duties, $355.00. Portland Light Infantry for escort and guard duties, $188.00. Dec. 30, 1870, Payment to Col. Thomas W. Hyde for duties as Staff Officer, $56.00. Total paid by state of Maine: $2,802.80.
Death & Funeral. 167-Funeral Costs Cont'd. d-Cost paid by the town of Peabody, Mass.: $4,800.00 (a town council proposal to repudiate this debt was defeated). Unknown but considerable were British government Admiralty costs involving HMS Monarch; and U.S. Navy costs involving USS Plymouth as escort vessel and U.S. receiving vessels at Portland, Maine, under Adm. D.G. Farragut. Grand total of known GP funeral cost was $8,496.30.
Death & Funeral. 168-Funeral Costs Cont'd. Ref. Peabody Papers, PEM, Salem, Mass. Westminster Abbey Muniments, "Funeral Fee Book 1811-1899," p. 231. State of Maine Executive Council, "Register of the Council," XXXIV (1870), pp. 110, 180-181, 318-319, 595-599, Maine State Library, Augusta, Maine. Peabody Press (Peabody, Mass.), March 23, 1870, p. 2, c. 5.
Final Funeral, Peabody, Mass.
Death & Funeral. 169-South Congregational Church, Peabody, Mass., Feb. 8, 1870. Storms occurred during GP's 96-day funeral odyssey: on Dec. 11, 1869, on transfer of GP's remains from Westminster Abbey to Portsmouth harbor, England; on Jan. 26, 1870, on transfer from HMS Monarch to Portland City Hall, Me.; and on Feb. 8, 1870, the day of final funeral service and eulogy at South Congregational Church, Peabody, Mass., and burial at Harmony Grove Cemetery, Salem, Mass. Ref. (Storms during GP's funeral): New York Times, Feb. 9, 1870, p. 1, c. 5.
Death & Funeral. 170-South Congregational Church, Peabody, Mass., Feb. 8, 1870 Cont'd. Despite bad weather thousands poured into tiny Peabody, Mass. Special morning trains, all full, ran from Boston to Peabody, Mass., at 7:30, 9:30, and 10:45. Large crowds were quiet and respectful. The 50 state troopers on duty had little to do but give directions. The same mid-morning train brought Prince Arthur and his retinue, British Minister to the U.S. Edward Thornton, Mass. Gov. William Claflin (1818-1905) and his staff, Robert Charles Winthrop, former U.S. Minister to Britain Charles Francis Adams (1807-86), Pres. Charles William Eliot (1834-1926) and others of Harvard Univ., and other delegates. Ref. Ibid. Ref. (Arrival of Prince Arthur and others and train schedules, Boston to Peabody, Mass.): Boston Herald, Feb. 16, 1895, quoted in Report of the Centennial Celebration of the Birth of George Peabody, Held at Peabody, Mass. Monday, February 8, 1895 (Cambridge, Mass.: Riverside Press, 1895), pp. 79-82.
Death & Funeral. 171-South Congregational Church, Peabody, Mass., Feb. 8, 1870 Cont'd. At 10:30 A.M., 13 pallbearers lifted the coffin from its catafalque in the Peabody Institute Library main reading room and carried it to a black hearse drawn by six horses escorted by military men. The hearse had been somberly decorated by the same C.W. Barth of Boston who had decorated the Peabody Institute's main reading room. The procession moved to the South Congregational Church. Over a hundred carriages followed slowly through crowd-lined Peabody streets. Snow fell. The wind blew. Ref. (Hearse decorated by C.W. Barth of Boston): Peabody Press (Peabody, Mass), Jan. 19, 1870, p. 2, c. 2.
Death & Funeral. 172-South Congregational Church, Peabody, Mass., Feb. 8, 1870 Cont'd. South Congregational Church filled quickly. Prince Arthur, in the seventh pew from the pulpit, held all eyes. Behind him were the Monarch's Capt. Commerell, the Plymouth's Capt. Macomb, Adm. Farragut's staff, Gov. William Claflin of Mass., Gov. Joshua L. Chamberlain of Me., and the mayors of eight New England cities. On the first six rows sat GP's relatives, elderly citizens who knew him in youth, and the trustees of his institutes and funds. Anthems were sung. Scripture was read. Robert Charles Winthrop rose to give the eulogy. Ref. Winthrop-a, III, p. 48. Winthrop-b, pp. 3-11, 22-23.
R. C. Winthrop's Eulogy on GP’s Life and Death
Death & Funeral. 173-Winthrop's Eulogy. Robert Charles Winthrop, descendant of an early governor of Mass. Bay Colony, a Harvard Univ. graduate, trained in Daniel Webster's law office, member and Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, GP's philanthropic advisor, and PEF board of trustees president, gave his eulogy of GP. Winthrop said: "What a career this has been whose final scene lies before us! Who can contemplate his rise from lowly beginnings to these final royal honors without admiration? His death, painless and peaceful, came after he completed his great dream and saw his old friends and loved ones." Ref. Ibid.
Death & Funeral. 174-Winthrop's Eulogy Cont'd.: "He had ambition and wanted to do grand things in a grand way. His public charity is too well known to bear repetition and I believe he also did much private good which remains unknown. The trusts he established, the institutes he founded, the buildings he raised stand before all eyes. I have authority for saying that he planned these for many years, for in private talks he told me all he planned and when I expressed my amazement at the magnitude of his purpose, he said to me with guileless simplicity: 'Why Mr. Winthrop, this is no new idea to me. From the earliest of my manhood, I have contemplated some such disposition of my property; and I have prayed my heavenly Father, day by day, that I might be enabled, before I died, to show my gratitude for the blessings which He has bestowed upon me by doing some great good to my fellow-men.' [The underlined words are engraved on GP's marker in Westminster Abbey, London, where his remains rested for 30 days, Nov. 12-Dec. 11, 1869. That marker and the above words on it were refurbished for the Feb. 12, 1995, bicentennial ceremony at Westminster Abbey]. Ref. Ibid.
Death & Funeral. 175-Winthrop's Eulogy Cont'd.: "To measure his gifts in dollars and pounds or in the number of people served is inadequate. He did something more. The successful way he arranged the machinery of world-wide philanthropy compels attention. It is a lesson that cannot be lost to history. It has inspired and will continue to inspire others to do likewise. This was the greatness of his life. "Now, all that is mortal of him comes back, borne with honors that mark a conquering hero. The battle he fought was the greed within him. His conquest was the victory he achieved over the gaining, hoarding, saving instinct. Such is the conqueror we make ready to bury in the earth this day. Ref. Ibid.
Death & Funeral. 176-Winthrop's Eulogy Cont'd.: "And so was fulfilled for him a prophecy he heard once as the subject of a sermon, on which by some force of reflection lingered in his mind and which he more than once mentioned to me: 'And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear nor dark; but it shall be one day which shall be known to the Lord, not day, or night: but it shall come to pass that at evening time it shall be light.'" Winthrop stated that GP first heard this text, Zechariah 14:6-7, in a sermon by the Rev. Dr. John Lothrop (1772-1820) of Brattle Street, Boston, date not known. Ref. Ibid. See Lothrop, John.
Death & Funeral. 177-Winthrop's Eulogy Cont'd.: "And so we bid thee farewell, noble friend. The village of thy birth weeps. The flower of Essex County stands at thy grave. Massachusetts mourns her son. Maine does honor to thee. New England and Old England join hands because of thee. The children of the South praise thy works. Chiefs of the Republic stand with royalty at thy bier. And so we bid thee farewell, friend of mankind." Ref. Ibid. (Winthrop's eulogy of GP was widely reprinted): New York Times, Feb. 9, 1870, p. 1, c. 4-7. Times (London), Feb. 10, 1870, p. 5, c. 1. New York Herald, Feb. 9, 1870, p. 4, c. 1-4. Peabody Education Fund, Vol. 1, pp. 151-167.
GP’s Burial at Harmony Grove Cemetery, Salem, Mass.
Death & Funeral. 178-Harmony Grove Cemetery, Salem, Mass., Feb. 8, 1870. The New York Times described the final scene at Harmony Grove Cemetery, Salem, Mass.: "There were about two hundred sleigh coaches in the procession. The route was shortened somewhat in consequence of the prevalence of the storm. On arriving at the Peabody tomb, there was no special service, the coffin being placed reverently therein, after which the procession returned to the Institute, and the great pageantry attending the obsequies of the great philanthropist was ended." Ref. (Final scene, Harmony Grove Cemetery): New York Times, Feb. 9, 1870, p. 1, c. 7.
Death & Funeral. 179-Harmony Grove Cemetery, Salem, Mass., Feb. 8, 1870 Cont'd. GP's remains were laid to rest in Harmony Grove Cemetery, whose 65 acres of avenues and walks were first laid out in 1840. It had been a thick walnut grove when he was a boy and could be seen from the attic of the house where he was born. On a knoll where he had once played he had chosen the family burial plot on Anemone Ave., lot number 51. Here he had brought together the remains of his mother, father, sisters, and brothers. Here he himself was interred. Ninety-six days of unprecedented honors had ended. Only his memory and his works remained. Ref. (Harmony Grove Cemetery described): Webber and Nevins, p. 187. Essex Institute, p. 199. Ref. (Peabody family plot, Harmony Grove Cemetery): Whipple and Smith, p. 61.
Monarch Officers U. S. Tour
Death & Funeral. 180-Capt. Commerell's U.S. Tour. Funeral researcher Allen Howard Welch explained the Jan. 25-Feb. 1, 1870, near-faultless Portland, Me., GP funeral reception as follows: "Observers on the local level felt that such an affair had never passed off so completely without a mar. They attributed this to the fact that the U.S. Navy had entrusted its supervision to Commodore John J.[ay] Almy [1815-95], chief of Farragut's staff, who carried out the Portland ceremonies with the precision characterizing the regular naval service." Funeral researcher Welch was more complimentary of HMS Monarch Capt. John Edmund Commerell: "More of the credit, however, must go to Captain Commerell, whose bearing and courtesy had disarmed much of the anti-Peabody opposition and taken the sting from America's official indifference." Ref. (below).
Death & Funeral. 181-Capt. Commerell's U.S. Tour Cont'd. Capt. Commerell's activities included a-Feb. 1, 1870: standing arm in arm with Portland Mayor William LeBaron Putnam (1835-1918) at the transfer of GP's remains from Portland City Hall to the funeral train bound for Peabody, Mass. This was followed by b-Commerell's attendance at a dinner for dignitaries given by Me. Gov. Chamberlain at the Falmouth Hotel. c-Feb. 4: reception, dinner, and soiree given by Gov. Chamberlain in Augusta, Me. for Commerell and his Monarch officers. d-Feb. 9: The Haydn Assn. of Portland (300 voices) toured the Monarch, sang songs including the "Star Spangled Banner," and were thanked by Capt. Commerell. e-Feb. 10: Capt. Commerell gave a dinner aboard the Monarch for Portland's elite. Ref. (below).
Death & Funeral. 182-Capt. Commerell's U.S. Tour Cont'd. f-That day he also accepted U.S. Navy Secty. George M. Robeson's invitation to visit Annapolis, Md. g-Feb. 13: HMS Monarch left Portland with Me. Gov. Chamberlain aboard (he was bound for Washington, D.C.). h-Feb. 19: The Monarch arrived at Annapolis, Capt. Commerell was received by U.S. Navy Secty. Robeson, and both were entertained by Md. Gov. Oden Bowie (1826-94). i-Feb. 25: Some 150 persons, including U.S. Cabinet members, dined aboard the Monarch. j-March 1: Monarch officers were guests of the City of Baltimore. k-March 4: Monarch left Baltimore for the return Atlantic crossing, reached Spithead out of Portsmouth, England, March 27, setting a transatlantic record for a British armored ship. Refs. below.
Death & Funeral. 183-Capt. Commerell's U.S. Tour Cont'd. Ref. Welch, pp. 116-137, who cited (for Capt. Commerell's U.S. tour and later career): New York Times, Jan. 30, 1870, p. 1; Feb. 1, 1870, p. 1; Feb. 2, 1870, p. 5; Feb. 4, 1870, p. l; Feb. 5, 1870, p. l; Feb. 9, 1870, p. 1; Feb. 10, 1870, p. 1; Feb. 11, 1870, p. 5; Feb. 14, 1870, p. 1; Feb. 20, 1870, p. 1; Feb. 21, 1870, p. 4; Feb. 26, 1870, p. 1; March 1, 1870, p. 4; March 5, 1870, p. 4; London Times, Feb. 5, 1870, p. 5; Feb. 10, 1870, p. 12. "Log of the Monarch," Dec. 30, 1869; Jan. 2, 15, 18, 23, 25; Feb. 22, March 3, 1870 Admiralty 53/9877, Public Record Office, London.
Death & Funeral. 184-Commerell & Monarch: Later Career. Capt. Commerell was appointed Admiral of the Fleet in 1892. He died in 1901. A few years later in 1906 the ship he earlier commanded, HMS Monarch, then Britain's largest and most powerful warship, ended its career at Simonstown, South Africa. The Monarch never had a more interesting assignment or rendered more impressive service than when it returned GP's remains for burial in Harmony Grove Cemetery, Salem, Mass. Ref. Welch, p. 137.
GP’s Death & Funeral In Retrospect
Death & Funeral. 185-Afterward: R.C. Schenck Replaced U.S. Minister Motley. In 1870, U.S. Pres. Grant, after recalling John Lothrop Motley as U.S. Minister to Britain, replaced him with the same Robert Cummings Schenck, Ohio Republican Congressman, who on Dec. 21, 1869, had bitterly opposed the Congressional resolution requesting a U.S. Naval reception to greet HMS Monarch's return of GP's remains to American soil. R.C. Schenck had lost reelection to Congress in 1870 when Pres. Grant appointed him U.S. Minister to Britain (1870-76). In that capacity, Schenk became a member of the Joint Commission that arbitrated the Alabama Claims and signed the Treaty of Washington in May 1871 by which Britain paid the U.S. $15.5 million in reparations. Ref. Ibid.
Death & Funeral. 186-Afterward: "coldness at the White House." U.S. Pres. Grant had been expected to visit the Monarch when she was in Annapolis, Md., but he did not do so. There is no record that Capt. Commerell, when he was in Annapolis, was ever invited to Washington, D.C. GP funeral researcher Allen Howard Welch ended his article with the plaintive statement: "The coldness at the White House remained substantially unthawed by Queen Victoria's efforts to send a private American citizen back to his homeland in 'an almost royal state.'" Ref. Ibid.
Death & Funeral. 187-Retrospect. For an American without office or title, GP's funeral was unprecedented, commanded international attention, and attracted international press coverage. Reconciliation of U.S.-British differences over Civil War irritations played a part. So too did appreciation for his philanthropy and for his efforts at Anglo-American friendship. Although many admired his philanthropy, some northern extremists saw as traitorous his $1.4 million Peabody Institute of Baltimore and even more so his $2 million PEF for public education in the South.
Death & Funeral. 188-Retrospect Cont'd. Extreme viewpoints, then so strongly held, have since lost their sting. What the average newspaper reader of the time thought of GP's life, death, and funeral honors can only be surmised. Some extreme Unionists disdained his commercial life in the South, thought his wealth ill gained, suspected his philanthropy, and thought his funeral honors vain, expensive, and trivial. Others sensed nobility in what he tried to do, saw his life and works as heroic, and were touched by the grandeur of his funeral, now little remembered.
Death & Funeral. 189-Final Thought. Because of GP's prominence his death would have merited more than normal press attention. But because he died at the height of U.S. grievances over the Alabama Claims and because Britain led and the U.S. followed in using his death to try to ease U.S.-British tensions, his transatlantic funeral received unusual ceremony and attention. One account states that the settlement of the Claims in 1872-73 "repaired relations with an important ally, opened London capital markets to American borrowing (essential to the funding of the war debt) and found their way into international law as the definitive standard for the obligations of neutrals in wartime." It seems that GP in death as in life helped bridge U.S.-British relations. Ref. Washington Post National Weekly Edition, Vol. 18, No. 30 (May 21-27, 2001), p. 33.
Deems, James Monroe (or Munroe) (1818-1901). To start the PIB Academy of Music, the trustees turned to this Baltimore composer, former Univ. of Va. adjunct professor (1849-58), trained in music in Dresden, Germany, Civil War Union officer (served as Major, 1st Md. Cavalry, Dec. 20, 1861; promoted Lt. Col. Nov. 10, 1862; breveted Brig. Gen.; mustered out Nov. 1863), and a European-trained musician. He helped organize 12 PIB concerts in 1866, 11 in 1867; hired local musicians, performers, and soloists; wrote the then popular Telegraph Quickstep; and also hired Boston musician Lucien H. Southard (1827-81), who was named director. Ref. Boatner, p. 229. Keefer, p. 158f. Schaaf-c, p. 275 See PIB, Music.
Depositories. For GP's letters and papers, and related letters and papers of others, see back-of-book References.
Deutsche Morgan Grenfell (since 1990). George Peabody & Co., London (Dec. 1, 1838-Oct. 1, 1864) was renamed J.S. Morgan & Co. (Oct. 1, 1864-Dec. 31, 1909). On Junius Spencer Morgan's death (1813-90) the firm was controlled by John Pierpont Morgan, Sr. (1837-1913). The firm continued as Morgan Grenfell & Co. (1910-18), Morgan Grenfell & Co., Ltd. (1918-90), and Deutsche Morgan Grenfell (since June 29, 1990), a German owned banking firm. See George Peabody & Co. Morgan, Junius Spencer.
Devens, Charles (1820-91), was a PEF trustee. He was born in Charlestown, Mass., educated at Harvard Univ., was in the Mass. senate (1848-49), a U.S. marshal for the district of Mass., a Union general in the Civil War (1861-66), Mass. Supreme Court associate justice (1873-77, 1881), and U.S. attorney general (1873-81). Ref. Curry-b, pp. 102-103.
Dickens, Charles (1812-1870), was the British novelist whose Westminster Abbey funeral service was the next after GP's funeral service (Charles Dickens died June 9, 1870). For a comparison of GP and Charles Dickens' funeral service costs at Westminster Abbey, see Death and funeral, GP's. For mention of Charles Dickens' daughter's presence in the Council Chamber of London's Guildhall when GP was given the Freedom of the City of London (July 10, 1862), with sources, see London, Freedom of the City of London.
Dickinson, Lowes Cato (1819-1908). 1-Painted GP's Portrait. Lowes Cato Dickinson was a British artist, one copy of whose portrait of GP is owned by the Peabody Trust of London, which built and managed the Peabody Homes of London. A second copy was owned by Henry Astley Darbishire (1825-99), British architect, who designed the 19th century estates containing Peabody Homes of London. A third copy is in the PIB. Ref. Information supplied by Christine Wagg, Peabody Trust Central Administration, London, Aug. 25, 1998. (On L.C. Dickinson): Dictionary of National Biography CD-ROM.
Dickinson, L.C. 2-Others who Painted GP's Portrait. Other known portraits of GP were painted by (in alphabetical order): a-Conway-Mass.-born Chester Harding (1792-1866); b-Boston-born George Peter Alexander Healy (1813-94); c-James Reid Lambdin (1807-89); d-Philadelphia-born photographer John Jabez Edwin Mayall (1810-1901), whose life-size photo of GP was said to have been painted over by Queen Victoria's portrait painter, Jules Arnoult, to resemble an oil painting; and e-London-born Henry William Pickersgill (1782-1875). See artists named. Engravers-artists. Peabody, George, Illustrations. Peabody, George, Portraits of. Schuler, Hans (for his bust of GP in N.Y.U. Hall of Fame). Story, William Wetmore Story (for his seated GP statue in London, a copy of which is in Baltimore).
Dielman, Louis Henry (1864-1959), was the fifth PIB librarian during 1926-42, for 16 years. He was born in New Windsor, Md., then famous for its mineral springs, where his father managed the local Dielman Inn. Dielman was card cataloguer for the Md. State Library, 1900-04; assistant librarian at the Enoch Pratt Free Library (1904-11); and began work in the PIB library in 1911. After leaving the Peabody Library, Dielman was on the staff of the Md. Historical Society, was the second editor of the Maryland Historical Magazine (1910-38; while still at the PIB), and compiled biographical reference cards on some 100,000 prominent Marylanders for the Md. Historical Society. He retired to his birthplace, New Windsor, and was a much admired local historian whom the townspeople familiarly called "Mr. Lou." See PIB Ref. Library.
Dillingham, George Allen (1937-), wrote The Foundation of the Peabody Tradition (Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 1989). He earned the M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from GPCFT. His book, especially good for its biographical material, has chapters on: 1-Southern Education after the Civil War (Role of the Peabody Education Fund), 2-Peabody Normal College, Its Program for the Preparation of Teachers, 3-Its Faculty and Administrative Leadership, and 4-Its Role in Southern Education. See PCofVU, brief history.
Dinner for GP, in South Danvers, Mass., South Danvers, Mass. GP's U.S. visit during Sept. 15, 1856 to Aug. 19, 1857, was incredibly busy. On arrival he declined invitations to public dinners from merchant-committees from NYC, Boston, and elsewhere. He explained that he was obligated to accept first a day of welcome on Oct. 9, 1856, by the people of his birthplace, South Danvers, Mass. This hometown celebration, festivities, and speeches were widely reported in the U.S. press and in a book, Proceedings At The Reception and Dinner in Honor of George Peabody, Esq., of London by the Citizens of the Old Town of Danvers, October 9, 1856 (Boston: H.W. Dutton & Son, 1856). See South Danvers, Mass. Oct. 9, 1856, GP Celebration. Abbott, Alfred Amos. Daniels, Robert Shillaber. Davis, John Chandler Bancroft. Everett, Edward. Gardner, Henry J. Visits to the U.S. by GP.
PEF Trustees Banquet, Feb. 19-22, 1867
Dinner, GP's, NYC. 1-PEF Trustees' March 22, 1867, Banquet. GP's Feb. 7, 1867, letter founding the PEF was read aloud the next day (Feb. 8) to ten of the original 16 PEF trustees gathered in an upper room of Willard's Hotel, Washington, D.C. The 16 PEF trustees next met with GP during Feb. 19-22, 1867, in NYC. One of these evenings GP invited two trustees, Adm. David Glasgow Farragut (1801-70), Pres. U. S. Grant (1822-85) and their wives to attend an opera. GP exchanged photos with the two military leaders. On March 22, 1867, at NYC's Fifth Avenue Hotel, GP gave a banquet for the PEF trustees and their wives. Among the 73 guests was 1-NYC store owner Alexander Turney Stewart (1803-76), whose store was later bought by and named Wanamaker's. A.T. Stewart built a model community in Garden City, N.Y., based on the plan of GP's model apartments for London's working poor (from 1862). Ref. (Farragut and Grant at opera with GP): Lewis, p. 335. For details and sources of Pres. Johnson's proposed cabinet reshuffle, see Congressional Gold Medal and Resolutions of Praise to GP.
Dinner, GP's, NYC. 2-PEF Trustees' March 22, 1867, Banquet Cont'd. Other dinner guests were: 2-NYC financier William Backhouse Astor (1792-1875); 3-historian George Bancroft (1800-91), who had been U.S. Minister to Britain (1846-49), and others. Adm. Farragut sat at GP's left and Mrs. Grant on his right. Note: there was a previous GP-Farragut-Grant connection when, to try to prevent Pres. Andrew Johnson's (1808-75) impeachment, his political advisor Francis Preston Blair, Sr. (1791-1876) proposed a complete change of Pres. Johnson's cabinet, with GP as Treasury Secty., Farragut as Navy Secty., and Grant as Secty. of War. But loyalty to his cabinet kept Johnson from this plan. Ref. Ibid.
Dinner, GP's, NYC. 3-R.C. Winthrop's Speech. The military men were in full dress uniform. PEF trustee Pres. Robert Charles Winthrop rose to speak: "The time is at hand," he said, "for the departure of George Peabody. I have here resolutions [from] the trustees [who]...thank him for his hospitality to us in Washington and New York. We consider this trust a high honor. We wish him God's blessing as he takes leave of this country." Winthrop concluded with: "Since he arrived last May he has performed acts of charity without precedent in the annals of the world. It was my friend Daniel Webster who said that the character of Washington was our greatest contribution to the world. Now we can add the example of George Peabody. The greatest philanthropist of his age." For details and sources, see Farragut, David Glasgow. For GP's specific philanthropic gifts during his May 1, 1866-May 1, 1867, U.S. visit (totaled $2,310,450), see Begging Letters to GP. Peabody, George, Philanthropy.
Dinner, GP's, NYC. 4-GP's Response. GP said, after Winthrop's speech: "Never have I been more honored than at this time by the presence of the highest officers of our Army and Navy, by the most distinguished men of the North and the South. May this gathering of friends be an omen of brighter days to come to our beloved country (applause). Let me close with two toasts. I give you our country, our whole country (enthusiastic applause and the playing of the national anthem)." GP concluded: "Finally, the country where I have lived and prospered, and to its Queen." (Great applause). Press reports complimented the banquet, the speeches, and noted the public's approval of the PEF's intent to advance public education in the devastated South. Before dispersing, the trustees and GP went to famed Civil War photographer Mathew Brady's (1823-96) NYC studio for their only group photo on March 23, 1867. Ref. Ibid.
Dinner, GP's, NYC. 5-Public Relations. Years later, former PEF trustee William Lawrence (1850-1941) described in his memoirs the PEF trustees' banquets and GP's penchant for favorable publicity: "There was in Mr. Peabody a touch of egotism and a satisfaction in publicity which worked to the advantage of this fund; by the selection of men of national fame as trustees he called the attention of the whole country to the educational needs of the South and the common interests of North and South in building up a united Nation." "The trustees," Lawrence wrote, "brought their wives to the annual meeting in New York, and in the evening met at the most sumptuous [banquet] that the hostelry of those days, the Fifth Avenue Hotel, could provide; the report of which and of what they had to eat and drink was headlined in the press of the South and the North. This annual event took place upon the suggestion of Mr. Peabody and at the expense of the fund; and in its social influence and publicity was well worth the cost." Ref. Ibid.
Dinners, GP's, London. 1-July 4, 1850. Little is known of GP's first July 4, 1850, U.S. friendship dinner except his bare mention of it in his July 4, 1856, dinner speech: "The first dinner I gave in connection with American Independence Day was a dinner in 1850 at which the American Minister, American and English friends were present." For GP's mention of his first July 4, 1850, U.S.-British friendship dinner, with sources, see Dallas, George Mifflin. Dinners, GP's, London, July 4, 1856 (below).
Dinners, GP's, London. 2-Great Exhibition of 1851 in London (First World's Fair) GP's two important U.S.-British friendship dinners in 1851 were on July 4, 1851, during the Great Exhibition of 1851 in London (first world's fair), and on Oct. 27, 1851, for the departing U.S. exhibitors. Background: Henry Cole (1808-82), Society of Art (later Royal Society of Art) member, had the idea for a first world's fair showing each nation's best industrial and art products. Knowing that such a large enterprise needed royal sponsorship, Cole turned to Albert of Saxe-Co-burg-Gotha (Prince Albert, 1819-61), Queen Victoria's husband and Society of Art president. German-born Prince Albert nurtured the idea past all obstacles to reality. A Royal Commission (Jan. 3, 1850) helped raise funds, issued contracts, and invited the world's nations to participate. Joseph Paxton (1801-65) designed the striking glass-covered Crystal Palace in Hyde Park to house the exhibits. See Great Exhibition of 1851, London (first world's fair). Persons named.
Dinners, GP's, London. 3-Great Exhibition of 1851 Cont'd. The U.S. Congress appointed nonpaid commissioners in charge. U.S. Pres. Millard Fillmore (1800-74) authorized the U.S. Navy's St. Lawrence to transport U.S. products and exhibitors to Southampton, England (Feb. 1851). But Congress did not appropriate funds to uncrate and transport the exhibits from Southampton to London or to adorn the large (40,000 sq. ft.) U.S. pavilion at the Crystal Palace. Crates strewn about the unadorned pavilion provoked the satirical Punch to poke fun at "the glaring contrast between large pretensions and little performance...by America." The London correspondent of the New York Evening Post called it "a national disgrace that American wares...are so barely displayed; so vulgarly spread out over so large a space." GP was then a comparatively little known U.S. resident merchant-turned-bond-broker-and-banker in London (since Feb. 1837). He and other U.S. residents knew it might take months for Congress to appropriate funds, if at all. For details of the July 4, 1851, dinner, and sources, see Corcoran, William Wilson. Great Exhibition of 1851, London (first world's fair).
Dinners, GP's, London. 4-Great Exhibition of 1851 Cont'd. GP quietly offered a $15,000 loan through U.S. Minister to Britain Abbott Lawrence (1792-1855). U.S. legation officers, U.S. exhibitors, and U.S. residents in London were relieved and grateful. Partly through GP's loan, which Congress repaid three years later, over six million visitors to the first world's fair saw U.S. manufactured products and arts displayed to best advantage. U.S. items most talked about were Albert C. Hobbs's (1812-91) unpickable lock, Samuel Colt's (1814-62) revolvers, Hiram Powers' (1805-73) statue, the Greek Slave, Cyrus Hall McCormick's (1809-84) reapers, Richard Hoe's (1812-86) printing press, and William Cranch Bond's (1789-1859) spring governor. With the Great Exhibition of 1851 open in London, and amid sometimes jocular, more often serious, U.S.-British rivalry, GP proposed to sponsor a U.S.-British friendship dinner on July 4, 1851, U.S. Independence Day, in the capital of Britain from which the American colonies had revolted 75 years past. See persons named.
July 4, 1851 Dinner, London
Dinners, GP's, London. 5-July 4, 1851: Will British Society Attend? GP had on a small scale hosted U.S.-British friendship dinners before 1851. His motive in the dinners, as in making the loan to the U.S. exhibitors, was to improve U.S.-British relations. Anti-U.S. quips in London newspapers saddened him, as did anti-British reports in U.S. newspapers. He was painfully aware of past strained relations. It had been 10 years since the U.S.-British dispute over the Maine boundary, 37 years since the War of 1812, 75 years since the American Revolution. In the international spirit of the Great Exhibition, and with so many prominent U.S. visitors present, GP had the idea in June 1851 to host a U.S.-British friendship dinner. He chose July 4, 1851, a date U.S. visitors would appreciate but Britons might resent. Could he do it on a larger than usual scale? Would British society attend?
Dinners, GP's, London. 6-July 4, 1851: Will British Society Attend? Cont'd. GP sounded out his friends, especially U.S. Minister to Britain Abbott Lawrence. Mr. Lawrence discreetly asked the opinion of London social leaders. On June 26, 1851, he found a wary reaction to the idea. In a private and confidential letter he warned GP: "Lady Palmerston was here. She has seen the leading ladies of the town and quoted one as saying the fashionables are tired of balls. I am quite satisfied that the fashionables and aristocracy of London do not wish to attend this Ball. Lady Palmerston says she will attend. I do not under those circumstances desire to tax my friends to meet Mrs. Lawrence and myself--Your party then I think must be confined to the Americans--and those connected with America, and such of the British people as happen to be so situated as to enjoy uniting with us." Ref. (London society won't attend): Abbott Lawrence to GP, June 26, 1851, Peabody Papers, PEM, Salem, Mass.
Dinners, GP's, London. 7-July 4, 1851: Will British Society Attend? Cont'd. Prospects looked dim. GP persisted. He wanted to build on the Great Exhibition spirit of goodwill. He thought his proposed friendship dinner might succeed if a truly distinguished British guest of honor attended. Through mutual friends, GP approached the Duke of Wellington (Arthur Wellesley Wellington, 1769-1852), then England's greatest living hero. The man who beat Napoleon at Waterloo reportedly huffed, "Good idea." When it was known that the 84-year-old Duke of Wellington would attend, British society followed. GP's Friday night, July 4, 1851, dinner succeeded enormously. Ref. (Duke of Wellington): Chapple, p. 8. Wilson, P. W., p. 45. See persons named.
Dinners, GP's, London. 8-July 4, 1851: Dinner, Dance, and the Duke. The Friday night, July 4, 1851, dinner was held at the exclusive Willis's Rooms, sometimes called Almack's. GP hired a professional master of ceremonies, a Mr. Mitchell of Bond St. On either end of the spacious ballroom were portraits of Queen Victoria and George Washington. Flowers were tastefully arranged. English and U.S. flags were skillfully blended. More than a thousand guests came and went that evening. Eight hundred sat down to dinner. Ref. (July 4, 1851, dinner): New York Times, Aug. 4, 1868, p. 2, c. 2. See Willis's Rooms. Persons named.
Dinners, GP's, London. 9-July 4, 1851: Dinner, Dance, and the Duke Cont'd. Present were Members of Parliament, former Tenn. Gov. Neill Smith Brown (1810-86), who was then U.S. Minister to Russia; London's Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress; Thomson Hankey (1805-93), the Bank of England's junior governor; Baroness Angela Georgina Burdett-Coutts (1814-1906), the 19th century's greatest woman philanthropist; Joseph Paxton of Crystal Palace fame; and other English nobility. An orchestra played and a ball followed in a spacious ballroom decorated with medallions and mirrors, lit by 500 candles in cut-glass chandeliers. At 11 p.m. as the Duke of Wellington entered, the band struck up "See the Conquering Hero Comes." GP approached the "Iron Duke," shook his hand, and escorted him through the hall amid applause, and introduced him to U.S. Minister Abbott Lawrence. See Great Exhibition of 1851, London (first world's fair). Persons named.
Dinners, GP's, London. 10-July 4, 1851: Praise. The London Times reported that His Grace had a good time and left at a late hour. The same article referred to GP as "an eminent American merchant." The Ladies Newspaper had a large woodcut illustration of GP introducing the Duke to Abbott Lawrence. Even the aristocratic London Morning Post took favorable note of the affair. U.S. Minister Abbott, gushing with pride and thanks, wrote to GP: "I should be unjust...if I were not to offer my acknowledgments and heartfelt thanks for myself and our country for the more than regal entertainment you gave to me and mine, and to our countrymen generally here in London." Lawrence went on: "Your idea of bringing together the inhabitants of two of the greatest nations upon earth...was a most felicitous conception...." Lawrence concluded: "I congratulate you upon the distinguished success that has crowned your efforts.... [You have] done that which was never before attempted." (By coincidence there is an equestrian statue of the Duke of Wellington in front of the Royal Exchange, London, by British sculptor Francis Legatt Chantry [1781-1841]; and nearby on Threadneedle St. is GP's seated statue by U.S. sculptor William Wetmore Story [1819-95]). Ref. (Statues mentioned: New York Times, Feb. 28, 1988, Sec. 2, p. 39, c.1. See Corcoran, William Wilson. Great Exhibition of 1851, London (first world's fair). Willis's Rooms.
Oct. 27, 1851 Dinner to Departing U. S. Exhibitors
Dinners, GP's, London. 11-Oct. 27, 1851: Departing U.S. Exhibitors. On Oct. 6, 1851, U.S. commissioner to the Great Exhibition Charles F. Stansbury and other exhibitors, about to return to the U.S., invited GP to be guest of honor at a farewell dinner. He gratefully declined on Oct. 11, said they had overestimated his services, added that his l5 years in London had erased sectional and political difference, and that he did what he could to further the U.S. as a whole. This invitation may have prompted his own Oct. 27 dinner to the departing exhibitors. It was grander and better received than his July 4, 1851, dinner. Also, he had the proceedings and speeches recorded, printed, and beautifully bound copies selectively distributed to U.S. and British officials. Ref. Ibid.
Dinners, GP's, London. 12-Oct. 27, 1851: Departing U.S. Exhibitors Cont'd. The Oct. 27, 1851, dinner was held at the London Coffee House, Ludgate Hill, where Benjamin Franklin as American ambassador had met friends to discuss American colonial affairs over food and drinks. British and U.S. flags draped life-size paintings of Queen Victoria, George Washington, and Prince Albert. Pennants and laurel wreaths decorated the long hall. At 7:00 P.M. GP took the chair, grace was said, and dinner was served to 150 U.S. and British guests, many of them connected with the just-closed Great Exhibition of 1851 in London. Ref. Ibid.
Dinners, GP's, London. 13-Oct. 27, 1851: Departing U.S. Exhibitors Cont'd. The toastmaster, a Mr. Harker, began: "Mr. Peabody drinks to you in a loving cup and bids you all a hearty welcome." A U.S.-made loving cup of English oak, inlaid with silver, inscribed "Francis Peabody of Salem to George Peabody, of London, 1851," was passed around until each guest tasted from it. After dessert, GP rose and gave the first toast to, "The Queen, God bless her." All stood as the band played God Save the Queen. His second toast was to "The President of the United States, God bless him." All rose while Hail Columbia was played. His third toast to "The health of His Royal Highness Prince Albert" brought more flourishes of music. U.S. Minister Abbott Lawrence was toasted and the band played Yankee Doodle. Ref. Ibid. (Note: The loving cup was given to GP by distant cousin Francis Peabody [1801-68] of Salem, Mass., fourth son of famed Salem, Mass., shipmaster Joseph Peabody [1757-1844]).
Dinners, GP's, London. 14-Oct. 27, 1851: Speeches. U.S. Minister Lawrence spoke of the many ties binding the U.S. and Britain. He praised Sir Joseph Paxton, "The man...who...[planned] a building such as the world never saw before." He praised Earl Granville (Granville George Leveson-Gower, 1815-91), who had "the skill and enterprise to execute the plan." He praised Sir Henry Bulwer-Lytton (William Henry Lytton Earle Bulwer, 1801-72), British ambassador to the U.S. U.S. Minister Lawrence said to the departing exhibitors: "We came out of the Exhibition better than was first anticipated.... You will take leave of this country...impressed with the high values of the Exhibition...in the full belief that you have received every consideration." Ref. New York Times, Nov. 13, 1851, p. 4, c. 2-3. See persons named.
Dinners, GP's, London. 15-Oct. 27, 1851: Speeches Cont'd. Sir Henry Bulwer-Lytton, grasping the hand of Abbott Lawrence, said: "I clasp your hand as that of a friend and claim it as that of a brother. [Cheers] The idea of this Great Exhibition...was...to collect...the mind of the whole world, so that each nation might learn and appreciate the character and intelligence of the other." "You live under a Republic," he said to the Americans, "and we under a Monarchy, but what of that? The foundations of both societies are law and religion: the purpose of both governments is liberty and order." Hand in hand," he concluded, "we can stand together...the champions of peace between nations, of conciliation between opinions." Ref. Ibid.
Dinners, GP's, London. 16-Oct. 27, 1851: Speeches Cont'd. GP, ending the festivities, stood. When the cheers subsided, he said: "I have lived a great many years in this country without weakening my attachment to my own land.... I have been extremely fortunate in bringing together...a number of our countrymen...and...English gentlemen [of] social and official rank.... May these unions still continue, and gather strength with the gathering years." The proceedings lasted more than four hours. The evening was favorably reported in the press. Ref. Ibid.
Dinners, GP's, London. 17-Oct. 27, 1851: U.S.-British Press. The New York Times gave two full columns to the dinner. Another NYC newspaper stated: "George Peabody's dinners were timed just right. For years there have been built up antagonism and recrimination. Suddenly a respected American, long resident in London with a host of American and English friends, brings them together. The thing works and...elicits applause and appreciation from both the American and English press." Great Exhibition participant Charles B. Haddock's (1796-1861) letter in a Concord, N.H., newspaper read: "Mr. Peabody's dinner to the departing Americans had several good effects. (1) It highlighted American achievement at the Exhibition; (2) brought George Peabody into notice; (3) raised Abbott Lawrence's esteem as United States Minister to England." Ref. Ibid. Congregational Journal (Concord, N.H.), Dec. 17, 1851, p. 1, c. 6-7.
Dinners, GP's, London. 18-Oct. 27, 1851: U.S.-British Press Cont'd. Haddock cont'd.: "It is something to have sent to the Exhibition the best plough, the best reaping machine, the best revolvers--something to have outdone the proudest naval people in the world, in fast sailing and fast steaming, in her own waters.... Moreover, it is a great pride for America to have George Peabody and Abbott Lawrence in England who represent the best of America and uphold its worth and integrity." Haddock referred to the U.S. yacht America, which won the 1851 international yacht race, defeating the English yacht Baltic in British waters. The first prize (a silver tankard) was afterward known as America's Cup. Ref. Ibid. Ref. (America's Cup): Rodgers (comp.). quoted in Ffrench, p. 242. See America's Cup (1851).
Dinners, GP's, London. 19-Oct. 27, 1851, Dinner Proceedings Book. GP commissioned Henry Stevens (1819-86) to compile and have printed in a book the dinner menu, toasts, proceedings, and speeches. GP's friend Henry Stevens was born in Barnet, Vt., a graduate of Yale College (1841) and Harvard Law School, who went to London in July 1845, and remained there for the rest of his life as a rare book dealer and bibliographer. He bought U.S. books for the British Museum and sold British books to U.S. libraries. Stevens had 50 copies printed and bound in cloth by Nov. 25, 1851, and sent copies to departing U.S. exhibitors. For distribution and acknowledgments of Oct. 27, 1851, dinner Proceedings book compiled by Stevens, with sources, see Corcoran, William Wilson.
Dinners, GP's, London. 20-Oct. 27, 1851, Dinner Proceedings Book Cont'd. Through U.S. Minister Abbott Lawrence, GP gave a copy printed on vellum to Pres. Millard Fillmore (1800-74). Pres. Fillmore acknowledged receipt and wrote to Abbott Lawrence: "From all I have heard of Mr. Peabody, he is one of those 'Merchant Princes' who does equal honor to the land of his birth and the country of his adoption. This dinner must have been a most grateful treat to our American citizens and will long be remembered by the...guests...he entertained as one of the happiest days of their lives.... The banquet shows that he still recollects his native land with fond affection, and it may well be proud of him." For GP's July 4, 1855, dinner, with former U.S. Pres. Millard Fillmore as guest of honor, see Fillmore, Millard.
Dinners, GP's, London. 21-Oct. 27, 1851, Dinner Proceedings Book Cont'd. U.S. Minister Lawrence also sent copies on vellum to Prince Albert, The Duke of Wellington, and Lord Granville. Lawrence wrote to GP: "I have a note from Colonel Grey [1804-70, later Gen. Charles Grey, Queen Victoria's advisor], the secretary to Prince Albert, acknowledging the receipt of your beautiful volume with expressions of thanks to you for it, from his Royal Highness." U.S. Minister to Britain Abbott Lawrence's son, after sending copies to Boston dignitaries, wrote to GP that the book was "much talked of in Boston and has been greatly praised." GP's nephew George Peabody Russell (1835-1909) wrote his uncle from Harvard, where GP was paying for his college education: "Your parting entertainment to the American Exhibitors has caused your name to be known and appreciated on this side of the Atlantic.... In fact, you have become quite a public character." Ref. (Abbott Lawrence to GP), Jan. 16, 1852, Peabody Papers, PEM, Salem, Mass. See persons named. Stevens, Henry.
Dinners, GP's, London. 22-Oct. 27, 1851, Dinner Aftermath: Beginning of GP's Philanthropy. Praise of GP in Baltimore newspapers may have prompted the Maryland Institute for the Promotion of the Mechanic Arts to make him an honorary member. He read a newspaper report of the Maryland Institute's effort to raise funds for a school of chemistry. GP wrote to Maryland Institute's Pres. William H. Keighler (1804-85), Oct. 31, 1851, enclosing a $1,000 gift for the chemistry school "as a small token of gratitude toward a State from which I have been mighty honored, and a City in the prosperity of which I shall ever feel the greatest interest." This still little known gift began his educational philanthropy. The next year, June 1852, when his hometown of Danvers, Mass., celebrated its 100th year of separation from Salem, Mass., GP, who could not attend, sent his first check to found his first Peabody Institute Library, accompanied by a motto, "Education--a debt due from present to future generations." Ref. (Md. Institute): GP to Md. Institute Pres. William H. Keighler, Oct. 31, 1851, Garrett Papers, Library of Congress Ms. Quoted in American and Commercial Daily Advertiser (Baltimore), Nov. 27, 1851, p. 2, c. 1.
Dinners, GP's, London. 23-Oct. 27, 1851, Dinner Aftermath: Beginning of GP's Philanthropy Cont'd. To Washington, D.C., friend William Wilson Corcoran (1798-1888), who had written to GP, "You will make us proud to call you friend and countryman," GP answered: "However liberal I may be here, I cannot keep pace with your noble acts of charity at home; but one of these days I mean to come out, and then if my feelings regarding money don't change and I have plenty, I shall become a strong competitor of yours in benevolence." Thus, during Abbott Lawrence's years as U.S. Minister to Britain, GP emerged as a significant promoter of U.S.-British friendship. GP told only a few intimates of his early determination to found an educational institution in each city where he lived and worked. Public praise for his loan to the U.S. exhibitors at the Great Exhibition of 1851 and praise for his two Exhibition-connected dinners furthered that determination. GP emerged socially in the 1850s. In the 1860s he became the best known philanthropist of his time. Ref. GP to W.W. Corcoran, Oct. 3, 1851, Corcoran Papers, Library of Congress Ms., and quoted in Corcoran, p. 101. See persons named.
Dinners, GP's, London. 24-John Charles Frémont, Early 1852
Dinners. U.S. visitors in London who attended GP dinners, June 17 and July 4, 1852, included dashing Savannah, Ga.-born explorer-politician John Charles Frémont (1813-90). Frémont, and his wife, Jesse (née Benton) Frémont (1824-1902), daughter of U.S. Sen. from Missouri Thomas Hart Benton (1782-1858), were in London to raise funds to finance mining on their California Mariposa Estate. While acting governor of California at the outbreak of the Mexican War, 1846-47, Frémont borrowed money to meet territorial expenses. These debts were the cause of Frémont's arrest in London on April 7, 1852, as he and his wife were about to step into a carriage. A victim of circumstances, he appealed to GP, who deposited the bail needed for his release the next day, April 8, 1852. Ref. (Charles C. Frémont): Sun (Baltimore), July 10, 1852, p. 2, c. 1. New York Herald, June 29, 1852, p. 4, c. 3. Exchequer of Pleas, London. Gibbs and others versus John Charles Frémont, April 8, 1852. Messrs. Sanford to GP, April 8, 1952, Peabody Papers, PEM, Salem, Mass. Nevins, pp. 319-392, 395, 399, 404. Joseph Reed Ingersoll to GP, July 25, 1852, Peabody Papers, PEM, Salem, Mass. See persons named.
Dinners, GP's, London. 25-John Charles Frémont, Early 1852 Dinners Cont'd. GP's June 17, 1852, dinner, celebrated the 77th anniversary of the Battle of Bunker Hill, Mass. (June 17, 1775). It was held at the Brunswick Hotel, Blackwall, opposite the Greenwich Hospital some six miles from St. Paul's overlooking the Thames. Over 100 guests were at the dinner, three fourths of them Americans. Besides John Charles Frémont, guests included U.S. Minister to Britain Abbott Lawrence and Mrs. Lawrence, MP from Liverpool William Brown (1784-1864), Thomson Hankey (1805-93) of the Bank of England, N.Y. state editor and political leader Thurlow Weed (1797-1882), and others. After dinner Minister Abbott Lawrence spoke. He skillfully compared the Battle of Bunker Hill, which gave freedom to the American continent, with the Battle of Waterloo (June 18, 1815), which freed Europe from Napoleon. These adjacent anniversaries, Lawrence said, symbolized the U.S. and England as keeping freedom's light burning. MP William Brown and Thomson Hankey also spoke. Refs. below.
Dinners, GP's, London. 26-John Charles Frémont, Early 1852 Dinners Cont'd. Ref. (GP's June 17 and July 4, 1852, dinners and speeches): NYC Commercial Advertiser, July 9, 1852, p. 2, c. 1-2. Republic (Washington, D.C.), July 10, 1852, p. 2, c. 5. Leader (London), June 26, 1852, pp. 603, 708. Sun (Baltimore), July 10, 1852, p. 2, c. 1. Albany Evening Journal (Albany, N.Y.), July 3, 1852, p. 3, c. 4 and July 7, 1852, p. 2, c. 2. British Army Dispatch (London), July 9, 1852, p. 445, c. 1-3. Daily Cincinnati Gazette (Ohio), July 30, 1852, p. 2, c. 3. See persons named.
Dinners, GP's, London. 27-Thurlow Weed, June 17, 1852, Dinner. GP forwarded mail and secured tickets to exhibits and the opera for Thurlow Weed. Weed described the Bunker Hill anniversary dinner in his Albany Evening Journal. He referred to GP as "the American Merchant Prince, who makes London so pleasant to his countrymen." In Nov. 1861 when Weed was Pres. Lincoln's emissary in London to keep England neutral in the U.S. Civil War, he again saw GP, who helped him meet British officials. Asked later to be GP's philanthropic advisor, Weed recommended as better qualified Mass. statesman Robert Charles Winthrop (1809-94). In Dec. 1869, after GP's death, when some articles charged GP as pro-Confederate, Weed publicly vindicated GP as a staunch Unionist. GP invited his War of 1812 military commander, then in Europe, to his July 4, 1852, dinner, also held at the Brunswick Hotel, Blackwall. His commander, in Berlin and unable to attend, wrote GP: "I hope you will not forget your old commander on that day and that you will drink his health as I shall drink yours wherever I may be." Ref. (GP's Md. commander): G.H. (or G.W.?) Steward, Baltimore, written from Berlin, to GP, June 20, 1852, Peabody Papers, PEM, Salem, Mass. See Civil War and GP. Persons named.
Dinners, GP's, London. 28-Oct. 12, 1852, Dinner. GP gave a dinner in London on Oct. 12, 1852, to introduce incoming U.S. Minister J.R. Ingersoll and his niece, Miss Charlotte Manigault Wilcocks (1821-75). The dinner also honored the departing U.S. Minister to Britain, Abbott Lawrence. Present was Joshua Bates (1788-1864), born in Weymouth, Mass., who early went to London where he became agent for, partner in (1826), and soon head of the Baring Brothers. Present too was Russell Sturgis (1805-87), U.S-born London resident merchant-banker. GP's dinner enabled the Ingersolls to meet U.S. residents in London and prominent Britishers. One GP critic, however, wrote in his private journal that GP's dinners had an ulterior motive. Secty. of the U.S. Legation in London Benjamin Moran (1820-86) wrote (Aug. 31, 1857): "He [GP] generally bags the new American Minister for his own purposes and shows him up around the town, if he can, as his puppet to a set of fourth rate English aristocrats and American tuft-hunters who eat his dinners and laugh at him for his pains." Ref. (Oct. 12, 1852, dinner): Boston Daily Journal, Nov. 1, 1852, p. 2, c. 3. Ref. (Moran's journal): Wallace and Gillespie, eds., I, p. 123.
Dinners, GP's, London. 29-Oct. 12, 1852, Dinner Cont'd. Legation Secty. Moran's sarcastic views, however, were discredited by the editors of his published journal (1948) and by historian Henry [Brooks] Adams (1838-1918), private secretary to his father, Charles Francis Adams (1807-86), U.S. Minister to Britain during 1861-68. Henry Adams wrote: "Benjamin Moran...had an exaggerated notion of his importance; he was sensitive to flattery, and easily offended.... [His] diary...must be read from the point of view of his character...." Ref. (Henry Adams on Moran): Adams, H-b., p. xxxiv. See persons named.
Dinners, GP's, London. 30-Oct. 12, 1852, Dinner Cont'd. GP's gifts of apples and tea, use of his opera box, and U.S.-British friendship dinners earned Minister Ingersoll's thanks in a letter on June 16, 1853: "I do but echo the general sentiment, in expressing to you the feelings of regard and esteem which you have inspired." Ref. J.R. Ingersoll was commissioned U.S. Minister to Britain on Aug. 21, 1852, arrived in London Sept. 30, 1852, presented his credentials on Oct. 16, 1852, and was relieved Aug. 23, 1853; letter from Archivist, National Archives, Washington, D.C., to authors, Dec. 23, 1955.
Dinners, GP's, London. 31-May 18, 1853, Dinner. GP's May 18, 1853, dinner provided more contact with London society for U.S. Minister J.R. Ingersoll and his niece, Miss Wilcocks. The dinner was held at the Star and Garter, Richmond, about eight miles from London, overlooking the Thames. The 150 guests (65 English, 85 Americans) included Harvard Univ. professor (and president in 1860) Cornelius Conway Felton (1807-62). He later wrote in his book, Familiar Letters from Europe, of being a guest "at a splendid and costly entertainment" in 1853 by GP with Martin Van Buren (1782-62, eighth U.S. Pres., 1837-41) and "many very distinguished persons" present. Ref. Felton, p. 28. New York Daily Times, June 1, 1853, p. 8, c. 2-5. Baltimore American and Commercial Daily Advertiser, June 3, 1853, p. 2, c. 3-4. Daily National Intelligencer (Washington, D.C.), June 7, 1853, p. 3, c. 1-3. Curry-b, p. ix.
Dinners, GP's, London. 32-May 18, 1853, Dinner Cont'd. A band and vocalists began and ended the dinner with the British and U.S. national anthems. After the sumptuous meal GP expressed his pleasure at bringing together U.S. and British friends. Minister Ingersoll then read the toasts: "The Queen: the President of the United States: and the people of the United States and the United Kingdom: the two great nations, whose common origin, mutual interests and growing friendships, serve to cement a union created by resemblance in language, liberty, religion and law." Ingersoll's speech that followed his toasts contained complimentary references to former U.S. Pres. Martin Van Buren and to GP. These references evoked cheers. Van Buren rose and paid respects to the occasion and to GP as host. Ref. Ibid.
Dinners, GP's, London. 33-May 18, 1853, Dinner Cont'd. GP's friend, Episcopal Bishop of Ohio Charles Pettit McIlvaine (1799-1873) rose to speak. Years later he would help GP plan the Peabody apartments for London's working poor (from March 12, 1862, $2.5 million total gift). McIlvaine said, referring to GP's British-U.S. dinners: "When history should come to be written, and due weight should be given to all the influences which tend to perpetuate international concord, if history should consent to notice incidents apparently so trifling as social festivities and the interchange of friendly greetings, it would assign...a very high place to their host as one who had done very much in this way to promote mutual knowledge and goodwill between the people of the two great nations who were there represented." The dinner and speeches received transatlantic press coverage. What the dinner cost GP is not known, but one bill, only part of the total, was about $940. Ref. Ibid.
Dinners, GP's, London. 34-May 18, 1853, Dinner Cont'd. Also present at this GP dinner honoring Minister J.R. Ingersoll were Boston merchant Junius Spencer Morgan (1813-90) and Mrs. Morgan. Because GP was often ill, business friends had long urged him to take an American partner to give continuity to George Peabody & Co. Friends recommended J.S. Morgan as a likely partner of great probity, experienced in dry-goods importing and knowledgeable about securities and banking. GP and Morgan had been in correspondence about a possible partnership. The J.S. Morgans and their 16-year-old son, John Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913), had come to London expressly to look into the possible partnership. See Morgan, Junius Spencer. Morgan, Sr., John Pierpont.
Dinners, GP's, London. 35-May 18, 1853, Dinner Cont'd. The May 18, 1853, dinner allowed GP and Morgan to take each other's measure in a social setting. Young J.P. Morgan, who was not at the dinner, wrote to his cousin that night, "Father and Mother went to a dinner given by George Peabody at Richmond." GP and J.S. Morgan were both favorably impressed. The Morgans returned to Boston. J.S. Morgan visited U.S. firms with which George Peabody & Co. did business. Morgan decided to accept. He made another trip to London to examine the company books. The partnership took effect the next year, Oct. 1, 1854. Ref. Ibid.
Dinners, GP's, London. 36-May 18, 1853, Dinner Cont'd. Contact with Minister J.R. Ingersoll also had the touch of a possible romance, entirely on the part of Ingersoll's niece, Charlotte Manigault Wilcocks. Although sometimes ill in the summer of 1853, GP's social entertainment included Miss Wilcocks and another lady, Elise Tiffany, daughter of Baltimore friend Osmond Capron Tiffany (1794-1851). From Paris in June 1853 Elise Tiffany's brother George Tiffany asked GP by letter to help get an apartment for them in London. He added, "I just asked Elise if she had any message for you. She says, 'No, I have nothing to say to him whilst Miss Wilcocks is there.'" Ref. George Tiffany, Paris, to GP, London, June 7, 1853, Peabody Papers, PEM, Salem, Mass.
Dinners, GP's, London. 37-May 18, 1853, Dinner Cont'd. The Tiffanys had been invited to the May 18, 1853, dinner for the Ingersolls but Elise would not go. Her brother George Tiffany explained in a letter to GP: "Elise knows the entertainment is to the American Minister and Miss Wilcocks. The thing is impossible. Her trunks will not pack, nor her Bills pay.... As to the Scotch trip of a couple of weeks, Elise counts upon your making that sacrifice as a balm to her wounded feelings, caused by the various reports all through the winter." Ref. Ibid.
Dinners, GP's, London. 38-May 18, 1853, Dinner Cont'd. GP had gone to the opera with Miss Wilcocks and they appeared together at social functions. A London reporter for a NYC newspaper wrote about a possible romance: "Mr. Ingersoll gave his second soiree recently. Miss Wilcocks does the honors with much grace, and is greatly admired here. The world gives out that she and Mr Peabody are to form an alliance, but time will show...." GP, then age 58, had no matrimonial intentions, as he explained in a letter to intimate Washington, D.C., business friend William Wilson Corcoran (1798-1888): "I have now arrived at an age that throws aside all thoughts of marriage [although] I think her [Miss Wilcocks] a very fine woman." Ref. GP, London, to William Wilson Corcoran, Washington, D.C., May 3, 1853, Corcoran Papers, Library of Congress Ms. Also quoted in Corcoran, pp. 110-111.
Dinners, GP's, London. 39-July 4, 1854 Dinner: Sickles Affair. GP's July 4, 1854, Independence Day dinner, Star and Garter Hotel, London, honored incoming U.S. Minister to Britain James Buchanan (1791-1868), later 15th U.S. President during 1857-61. The incident that marred the dinner occurred when jingoistic U.S. Legation Secty. Daniel Edgar Sickles (1825-1914), objected to GP's toast to "The Queen" before one to "The U.S. President." Sickles refused to stand and angrily walked out. See Sickles, Daniel Edgar. Corcoran, William Wilson.
Dinners, GP's, London. 40-July 4, 1854 Dinner: Sickles Affair Cont'd. D.E. Sickles was born in NYC, attended what is now New York Univ., and was brought in as U.S. Legation Secty. in London by incoming U.S. Minister Buchanan. In 1853 before he arrived in London, Sickles wrote GP to reserve rooms for himself, wife, and baby, a courtesy service George Peabody & Co. did for visiting Americans. GP consulted Sickles and others about his planned July 4, 1854, Independence Day banquet. Sickles suggested that it be a subscription dinner and that he, Sickles, arrange it. GP insisted on paying for the dinner as usual but let Sickles help select guests, send invitations, and help plan the entertainment. GP always first toasted Queen Victoria as British head of state and secondly the U.S. President. Sickles, an ultra-patriot at a time of U.S. jingoism (the U.S. had recently won the Mexican War and acquired parts of Texas and California), considered the order of toast a national insult, sat while the other 149 guests stood for the two toasts. Stiff and red-gorged, wrote his biographer, Sickles stormed out of the banquet. Buchanan, guest speaker at the banquet, remained. Ref. Ibid.
Dinners, GP's, London. 41-July 4, 1854 Dinner: Sickles Affair Cont'd. U.S.-British press reports of Sickles' walkout were fanned to a furor when an anonymous letter (Sickles later admitted writing the letter) in the Boston Post, July 21, 1854, p. 2, c. l, attacked GP's lack of patriotism and chided him for "toadying" to the English. One reader swayed by this charge wrote GP: "If you had a grain of national feeling you wouldn't have done it.... You are no longer fit to be called an American citizen." Such reaction led GP and others to send the facts to the Boston Post. Pro and con letters were published for months in the press. Most letter writers criticized Sickles and exonerated GP. Ref. Ibid.
Dinners, GP's, London. 42-July 4, 1854 Dinner: Sickles Affair Cont'd. Sickles' subsequent career was also controversial. On Feb. 27, 1859, while serving in the U.S. Senate (1857-61), he shot to death Philip Barton Key (son of Francis Scott Key, 1779-1843) for Key's alleged attentions to Sickles' wife. Sickles was acquitted of the murder charge as of unsound mind, the first U.S. court use of that defense. In the Civil War Sickles was a Union general and lost a leg at Gettysburg. As Reconstruction commander of the Carolinas during 1865-67, his punitive actions against former Confederates were said to have been so severe that Pres. Andrew Johnson (1808-75) transferred him to another command. Sickles was U.S. Minister to Spain (1869-73), served again in the U.S. Congress, helped establish Gettysburg as a national park, and helped secure the land for NYC's Central Park. Ref. Ibid.
Dinners, GP's, London. 43-July 4, 1854: Sickles Charged--GP Rebutted. A friend wrote GP: "We are astounded that you lower yourself by a correspondence with the most contemptible of all Americans, Sickles, who was indicted by a New York Grand Jury for fraud, which indictment stands to this day." Another informant wrote GP that proof of Sickles' guilt in committing fraud was contained in letters stolen from the NYC post office by Sickles' direction. Statements from several July 4, 1854, dinner participants defending GP's actions were published. Ref. Ibid.
Dinners, GP's, London. 44-July 4, 1854: GP Defended. Horatio Gates Somerby (1805-72), Newburyport, Mass.-born genealogist, London resident, and GP's friend and sometime agent, helped arrange the dinner. Somerby explained his part in the dinner: "At Mr. Peabody's request I drew up a series of toasts and submitted them to Mr. Buchanan.....[These] were returned to me as approved.... Mr. Sickles did indeed object to Englishmen being present. The Minister approved and Mr. Peabody's course was independent of Mr. Sickles' opinion." A letter from 26 Americans present at the dinner, including Henry Barnard (1811-1900), Conn. Superintendent of Common Schools (later first U.S. Commissioner of Education), read: "The undersigned have read Mr. Peabody's letter to the Boston Post of Aug. 16, 1854, and without hesitation affirm as true the events described by Mr. Peabody." Ref. Ibid. See persons named.
Dinners, GP's, London. 45-July 4, 1854: Aftermath. Abbott Lawrence (1792-1855) of Boston, former U.S. Minister to Britain (1849-52), wrote GP: "The attack made upon you I deem unworthy of any man who professes to be a gentleman. Your misfortune was in having persons about you who were not worthy to be at your table. I had hard work to get rid of some men in England who hung about me, but cost what it would I would not permit a certain class of adventurer to approach me." Ref. Ibid.
Dinners, GP's, London. 46-July 4, 1854: Aftermath Cont'd. Longtime business friend William Wilson Corcoran (1798-1888) of Washington, D.C., with whom GP had helped sell U.S. bonds abroad that financed the Mexican War, wrote GP that [U.S. Minister to Britain James] "Buchanan had not the slightest respect" for Sickles but for political reasons could not reprove him. Buchanan, with a less controversial new legation secretary, wrote to Sickles: "Your refusal to rise when the Queen's health was proposed is still mentioned in society, but I have always explained and defended you." Two years later, while GP was in Washington, D.C., during his 1856-57 U.S. visit, and when James Buchanan was the 15th U.S. President, there was a coldness between the two men, who did not meet again. Ref. Ibid. See persons named.
Dinners, GP's, London. 47-June 13, 1856, Dinner. George Mifflin Dallas (1792-1864).was U.S. Minister to Britain during 1856-61, replacing U.S. Minister James Buchanan. G.M. Dallas was in turn replaced by Charles Francis Adams (1807-86), U.S. Minister to Britain during 1861-68. G.M. Dallas was born in Philadelphia, graduated from Princeton College (1810), was a lawyer (1813), U.S. Sen. from Penn. (1831-33), Penn. Attorney General (1833-35), U.S. Minister to Russia (1837-39), and U.S. Vice President (1845-49) under U.S. Pres. James K. Polk (1795-1849, 11th U.S. President during 1845-49).
Dinners, GP's, London. 48-June 13, 1856, Dinner Cont'd. GP gave a U.S.-British friendship dinner and entertainment on June 13, 1856, to introduce incoming Minister G.M. Dallas. The 130 guests included 1-the Lord Mayor of London and the Mayoress; 2-Curtis Miranda Lampson (1806-85) and Mrs. Jane (née Walter) Lampson (C.M. Lampson was a Vt.-born naturalized British subject and GP's longtime business friend); 3-Junius Spencer Morgan, who become GP's partner in George Peabody & Co. on Oct. 1, 1854 (his son John Pierpont Morgan, Sr., began his banking career as NYC agent for George Peabody & Co.) and Mrs. Morgan; 4-Sir Joseph Paxton (1801-65), British architect who designed the Crystal Palace to house the Great Exhibition of 1851 in London, the first world's fair; and 5-John Pendleton Kennedy (1795-1870), Baltimore-born novelist and U.S. statesman who, at GP's request, designed the PIB, to which GP gave a total of $1.4 million, 1857-69; and others. Ref. New York Times, July 4, 1856, p. 2, c. 4-5; London Lloyd's Weekly Newspaper, June 22, 1856, p. 5, c. 3.
Dinners, GP's, London. 49-June 13, 1856, Dinner Cont'd. J.P. Kennedy wrote in his journal about the June 13, 1856, dinner: "A great banquet given by Mr. P., with tickets to the Concert there at 3...we got to dinner about 7. We number nearly 130." The June 13, 1856, dinner which introduced Minister Dallas was held soon after the Crimean War (1855-56, Russia vs. England, France, others). There was in the U.S. some anti-British feeling about this European conflict. British Minister to the U.S. John Crampton indiscreetly tried to recruit U.S. volunteers for the British army. U.S. Secty. of State William Learned Marcy (1786-1857) objected and had Crampton recalled. Ref. Kennedy's journal, IX, "Travel in England, May 10-October 20, 1856, entry dated Friday, June 13, 1856," Kennedy Papers, PIB.
Dinners, GP's, London. 50-June 13, 1856, Dinner Cont'd. It happened that former British Minister to the U.S. Henry Bulwer-Lytton (1801-72) was to have proposed the health of U.S. Minister Dallas at GP's June 13, 1856, dinner. But Bulwer-Lytton, being Crampton's colleague, explained to GP that to appear at this dinner and propose the health of U.S. Minister Dallas would be unfair to his dismissed colleague John Crampton and would evoke British public resentment. It was a tribute to GP that he could still successfully sponsor this U.S.-British friendship dinner at that tense time of misunderstanding and mistrust. See Crimean War. Persons named.
Dinners, GP's, London. 51-July 4, 1856, Dinner: GP's Remarks. GP gave a July 4, 1856, Independence Day dinner for more than 100 Americans and a few Englishmen at the Star and Garter Hotel, Richmond, eight miles from London on the Thames at which Minister G.M. Dallas gave a short speech. GP prefaced his toast with these remarks: "I have before me two loving cups, one British the second of American oak, presented to me some years ago by Francis Peabody [1801-68, distant cousin from Salem, Mass.] now present. Let me say a few words before passing these cups. The first dinner I gave in connection with American Independence Day was a dinner in 1850 at which the American Minister, American and English friends were present. In 1851, the Great Exhibition year, I substituted a ball and banquet. Some of my friends were apprehensive that the affair would not be accepted that year of Anglo-American rivalry but the acceptance of the Duke of Wellington made the affair successful. For twenty years I have been in this kingdom of England and in my humble way mean to spread peace and good-will. I know no party North or South but my whole country. With these loving cups let us know only friendship between East and West." See Dallas, George Mifflin.
Dinners, GP's, London. 52-July 4, 1856, Dinner: Wm. Brown's Speech. GP proposed "The Day We Celebrate," followed by "Her Majesty, the Queen," and "the President of the United States." MP from Liverpool William Brown (1784-1864), said: "The day we celebrate will ever be remembered in the history of the world. For we English derive as much satisfaction from it as you do. None of us are answerable for the sins of statesmanship or the errors of our forefathers. George Washington, remembered with respect by England and the world, would rejoice to see the enterprising spirit of the country he brought into existence, a country which seeks to bridge the Atlantic and Pacific via canal and now explores the Arctic seas (cheers). "I deny that England is jealous of the United States. We rejoice in your prosperity and know that when you prosper we share in it. It is not true that the fortunes of one country arise from the misfortune of another. While we have differences they can be amicably adjusted (cheers). I toast the American Minister, Mr. George M. Dallas (cheers)." Ref. Ibid.
Dinners, GP's, London. 53-July 4, 1856, Dinner: Minister Dallas Said: "I rejoice to find so many patriots present to celebrate American Independence Day. We are, as a country, but eighty years old, yet how proud we are of her (cheers). Small and feeble at birth, she now contains twenty-seven million people. Once on the margin of the Atlantic she is now an immense continent. It is a matter of sincere regret that the free nations are not always the sincerest friends (hear, hear)." A complimentary toast was proposed to GP as host. His few remarks in response concluded by saying that the land of his birth was always uppermost in his mind. When he sat down the band played "Home, Sweet Home." Present at this dinner was Irish-born sculptor John Edward Jones (1806-62), who made a bust of GP in 1856. Also present was U.S. inventor Samuel Finlay Breese Morse (1791-1872). A toast to "The Telegraph" was suddenly proposed. Not anticipating the toast and not having a reply at hand, Morse rose and modestly quoted from Psalm 19: "Their line is gone out through all the earth and their words to the end of the world." Ref. Ibid. See persons named.
Dinners, GP's, London. 54-July 22, 1858, Dinner. New York Herald's editor James Gordon Bennett (1795-1872) had written hostile articles covering GP's whirlwind Sept. 15, 1856, to Aug. 19, 1857, U.S. visit, his first return to the U.S. after nearly 20 years' absence in London. GP, having hurriedly returned to London to save his firm from Panic of 1857 pressures, resumed his U.S.-British friendship dinners. His July 22, 1858, dinner at the Star and Garter, Richmond Hill, near London, attended by 30 Briton and 60 Americans, had as guest of honor U.S. Minister to France John Young Mason (1799-1859). Other guests including Baltimorean John Pendleton Kennedy and New York Times editor Henry Jarvis Raymond (1820-69). Ref. New York Herald, Aug. 15, 1858, p. 1, c. 4-6. See Morgan, Junius Spencer. Panic of 1857. Persons named. Visits to the U.S. by GP.
Dinners, GP's, London. 55-July 22, 1858, Dinner. Cont'd. Another GP critic, U.S. Legation in London Secty. Benjamin Moran (1820-86), read with glee Bennett's criticism of GP's July 22, 1858, London, dinner and recorded in his private journal: "The New York Herald of the 15th inst. just at hand has an article ridiculing Peabody's dinner to old Mason at Richmond on the 29th of July [July 22, Moran's error], and very properly says Peabody is not admitted to good Society here, that the titled snobs who sit at his table are merely nobodies & only go for a dinner, & that any nobleman would consider himself insulted to receive an invitation to dine at a tavern. This is a sore cut to the old fool." See Moran, Benjamin.
Dinners, GP's, London. 56-July 4, 1862. GP's July 4, 1862, dinner at the Star and Garter Hotel, Richmond, was attended by Vt.-born rare book dealer and bibliographer Henry Stevens (1819-96). Stevens' biographer wrote of this dinner: "Henry was as usual invited to Peabody's Fourth of July Dinner in 1862, and was one of the sixty who gathered at the Star and Garter Hotel at Richmond. Peabody had been suffering from gout and lacked his usual spirit, so this was called merely a dinner on the Fourth and there were no political speeches." There were earlier and later GP-sponsored U.S.-British friendship dinners. Those dinners detailed above were the ones reported in the press or in journals or memoirs. Ref. Parker, W.W., p. 251.
Disderi, Andre Adolphe Eugene (1819-89), French photographer, who patented the visiting card (carte de visite) photograph, had studios in Paris and London, and made a visiting card photograph of GP. See Peabody, George (1795-1869), Illustration: picturehistory. Ref. McCauley.
District of Columbia. See Georgetown, D.C. Washington, D.C.
Dixon, James (1814-73), was one of the five trustees GP asked to propose a plan for the Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale Univ., which GP endowed on Oct. 22, 1866 with $150,000. The other four trustees were Othniel Charles Marsh (1831-99), Benjamin Silliman, Sr. (1779-1864), and Jr., and James Dwight Dana (1813-95). James Dixon was a Conn.-born lawyer and legislator (1837-38, 1844-46), U.S. House member (1845-49); was Conn. Sen. (1849-54); and U.S. Sen. (1857-69). See Marsh, Othniel Charles.
Dobbin, George Washington (1809-91), was a Md. judge and trustee of the PIB.
Doctors, GP's. See Keep, Nathan Cooley, Dr.. Putnam, Dr. Charles Gideon, Dr.
Dodge, Eliphalet S. (1776-1854), was GP's maternal uncle, son of his maternal grandfather Jeremiah Dodge (1744-1824) and grandmother Judith (née Spofford) Dodge (1749-1828). See Dodge, Jeremiah.
Dodge, Jeremiah (1744-1824). 1-GP's Maternal Grandfather. Jeremiah Dodge was GP's maternal grandfather who married Judith Spofford (1749-1828) on March 25, 1770. They lived at Post Mills Village near Thetford, Vt. Their oldest daughter, Judith Dodge (1770-1830), married Thomas Peabody (1762-1811) on July 16, 1789, and had eight children, including third born GP (1795-1869). At age 15 in the winter of 1810, toward the end of his four year apprenticeship (during 1807-11) in Sylvester Proctor's (1769-1852) store, GP traveled on horseback to visit his maternal grandparents. Several news accounts at GP's death (Nov. 4, 1869) and transatlantic funeral described his 1810 visit. There was a large pine tree at an inconvenient place which his grandfather often spoke of hiring someone to remove. GP, using an available ax and saw, felled the tree, a story often told by his grandparents and others in the family. Ref. (Marriage): Vital Records of Rowley, Mass., p. 282.
Dodge, Jeremiah. 2-GP's Maternal Grandfather Cont'd. With his grandparents or alone GP walked on Sunday mornings to attend a church five miles from his grandparents' home. A modern descendant of the Dodges, Anne A. Dodge of Ely, Vt., wrote the authors on June 14, 1954: "I remember hearing my father telling of George Peabody's coming, as a boy, to the Jeremiah Dodge family and living with them.... I remember hearing my father tell of the days when George Peabody used to walk from Post Mills, barefooted, shoes in hand, to attend church at Thetford Hill, a distance of about five miles." GP's grandparents had two sons, (uncle) Eliphalet S. Dodge (1776-1854) who lived with his family on a nearby farm, and (uncle) Daniel Dodge, a master mariner who commanded a sailing ship which traded between NYC and Canton. As a boy, GP sometime spoke of going to sea. Invariably seasick on his five transatlantic commercial buying trips (1827-37), he jokingly referred to his early seagoing thoughts in letters to his sisters.
Dodge, Jeremiah. 3-Barnstead, N.H. Leaving his grandparents, GP stopped overnight at Stickney's Tavern, Concord, N.H. The landlord had some boys who helped do chores. The story is told that GP played with the boys and helped them saw and split wood. The next day when GP offered to pay for his lodging Mr. Stickney declined payment saying that GP had earned his night's stay. GP proceeded to Barnstead, N.H., to visit his maternal aunt, his mother's sister, Mrs. Temperance Dodge Jewett (1772-1872?), married to physician Jeremiah Jewett (1757-1836). The story was told that in a heavy snowstorm Dr. Jeremiah Jewett had to be away on sick calls, and GP fed the horses, cared for the stable stock, broke paths from the house to the barn and road, and cut firewood. In memory of his 1810 visit with his grandparents, GP gave $5,000 for a public library in Thetford, Vt., in 1866. That same year (1866) he gave $450 for a church repair in Barnstead, N.H., in the name of his maternal aunt, Mrs. Jeremiah Jewett. Ref. Internet site (seen) March 18, 2000): http://www.valley.net~conriver/V13-7.htm Baldwin, J. A. pp. 12-15. See Concord, N.H. Persons named. Post Mills Village, Thetford, Vt. Stickney's Tavern, Concord, N.H.
Dodge, Judith Spofford (1749-1828), GP's maternal grandmother, wife of GP's grandfather, Jeremiah Dodge (1744-1824), both of whom their grandson GP (1795-1869) visited at age 15 in the winter of 1810 in Post Mills Village, near Thetford, Vt. See Dodge, Jeremiah.
Dodge, Nathaniel Shattwell (1810-74), was secty. or assistant to Commissioner Edward W. Riddle of Boston, initially in charge of the 500 U.S. exhibitors and their products shown at the Crystal Palace, Great Exhibition of 1851 in London, the first world's fair. Edward W. Riddle in turn awaited the arrival of Chief Commissioner Charles F. Stansbury of Washington, D.C. When the exhibitors found themselves without congressional funds to display their exhibits, it was GP's $15,000 loan, repaid by Congress three years later, which permitted American industry and art to be seen to best advantage by over six million visitors. Nathaniel Shattwell Dodge remained in London until 1861, wrote for the press under the name John Carver, and was a friend of U.S. Legation in London Secty. Benjamin Moran (1820-86). See Great Exhibition of 1851, London (first world's fair). Persons named.
Dodgson, Charles Lutwidge (1832-1898). 1-Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, writing under the pseudonym of Lewis Carroll, was the author of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, 1864. He was born in Daresbury near Warrington, England; graduated from Christ Church College, Oxford (1854); took Anglican Church orders (1861); and taught mathematics at Oxford (1861-81) He was on duty as don on Founders' and Benefactors' Day, June 26, 1867, when Oxford Univ. granted GP an honorary Doctor of Laws degree. In his journal entry that day (June 26) he recorded: "I was introduced to the hero of the day, Mr. Peabody." Dr. Henry Longueville Mansel (1820-72) of Oxford's Christ Church College wrote asking GP if he would accept an honorary degree. GP agreed by letter of June 5, 1867, to accept. The ceremony was held during Oxford's Encaenia, combining commencement with the celebration of spring, occasioned by readings, poetry, music, lectures, and a full-dress university parade, reflecting centuries of British tradition. Ref. Dodgson, I, p. 261. See Mansel, Henry Longueville. Oxford Univ.
Dodgson, C.L. 2-Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford Univ. The honorary degree ceremony was held in the Sheldonian Theatre. Undergraduates, exerting their traditional right of banter, called aloud the names of dignitaries whom they either cheered or hissed (they cheered Lord Derby [1826-93], groaned at MP John Bright [1811-99], both cheered and hissed PM William E. Gladstone [1809-98], and acclaimed PM Benjamin Disraeli [1804-81]). Ref. Ibid.
Dodgson, C.L. 3-"The lion of the day..." GP was one of six individuals granted an honorary degree that day. When GP's name was called and he stood up undergraduates applauded him, waved their caps, and beat the arms of their chairs with the flat of their hands. Jackson's Oxford Journal, June 29, 1867, recorded: "The lion of the day was beyond a doubt, Mr. Peabody." The Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford's famous assembly hall, was designed in 1669 by Christopher Wren, who was then astronomy professor at Oxford Univ. It was Wren's first major architectural commission and was named after the Archbishop of Canterbury, Gilbert Sheldon, who commissioned the theater while he was Oxford Univ.'s chancellor. Ref. Ibid. See Carroll, Lewis. Honors, GP's, in Life and after Death (in chronological order).
Dole, George Thurlow (1808-84). 1-Wrote Poem about GP. George Thurlow Dole was a Yale College graduate and class poet (1838), attended Yale Divinity School, and was a Congregational minister in several Mass. towns. At Yale Univ.'s Phi Beta Kappa Society, 1868, he delivered the following poem about GP, whose philanthropy helped found Yale's Peabody Museum of Natural History (founded Oct. 22, 1866, $150,000 gift):
Let all the rich, who mean, when they shall die
To do great things by legacy,
How to make sure a worthy end, and see
And taste the pleasure, learn of Peabody.
Dole, G.T. 2-Biographical Sketch. G.T. Dole was born in Newbury, Mass., attended nearby Dummer Academy, and at age 16 (1824) was an apprentice and then a skilled machinist in Lowell, Mass. (1824-33). Determined to be a minister, he prepared again at Dummer Academy for Yale College, then Yale Divinity School, finishing at Andover Theological Seminary (1841). He was a Congregational minister in Beverly, Mass. (1842-51), North Woburn, Mass. (1852-55), Lanesboro, Mass. (1856), taught at Williams Academy, Stockbridge, Mass., preached near Stockbridge (1864-75), and died in Reading, Mass. Elected Poet by his Yale graduating class, his long poem was delivered On Presentation Day (Graduation Day), July 4, 1834. He was active on school boards, had lung illness in college and throughout his life and died of acute bronchitis. Refs. below.
Dole, G.T. 3-Biographical Sketch. Ref. (G.T. Dole, biographical sketch): Biographical Record of the Class of 1838 in Yale College. Printed for Private Distribution. (New Haven, Conn.: Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor Printers, 1879), pp. 5-12 (G.T. Dole's Yale College Senior Class Poem); pp. 53-55 (G.T. Dole, biography); p. 187 (G.T. Dole's obituary notice). Ref. (G.T. Dole's 1868 poem on GP): Kenin and Wintle, eds., p. 590. See Blanc, Louis. Hugo, Victor-Marie. Marsh, Othniel Charles. Science: GP's Gifts to Science and Science Education.
Donation Fund. See Peabody Donation Fund in London (now Peabody Trust, which builds and manages the Peabody Homes of London).
Dorn, Sherman, wrote A Brief History of Peabody College. (Nashville: Peabody College of Vanderbilt University, 1996). He was then research assistant professor at PCofVU. He has a history degree from Haverford College and a history Ph. D. degree from the Univ. of Pennsylvania. His book, commissioned by Dean James W. Pellegrino of PCofVU, is based on PCofVU archives, and covers the origins of Peabody Normal College (1875-1911), its transition to a "super teachers college" (GPCFT, 1914-79), to its present status as PCofVU (since 1979), Vanderbilt Univ.'s ninth school. Also by Sherman Dorn, "Payne's Ambition," Peabody Reflector, Vol. 65, No. 1 (Spring 1995), pp. 2-3. See Payne, Bruce Ryburn. PCofVU, brief history of. See Glenn, Gustavus Richard.
Dorsey, John, editor of On Mencken (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1980), p. 54, indicated that Baltimore newspaper writer, author, and critic Henry Louis Mencken (1880-1956) used the PIB Library reference collection to write some of his books. See PIB Reference Library.
Dos Passos, John (1896-1970), was a U.S. novelist who used the resources of the PIB Library to write his book, Three Men Who Made the Nation (1957). Chicago-born and a Harvard graduate (1916), Dos Passos is known for his novels Three Soldiers (1921), his trilogy U.S.A. (1937), and Midcentury (1961). Ibid.
Drexel, Anthony Joseph (1826-93), was a PEF trustee influenced by that experience to found in 1891 Drexel Univ., Philadelphia. A.J. Drexel was born in Philadelphia, entered the banking firm of Drexel & Co., founded (1838) by his father, Francis Martin Drexel, an Austrian immigrant. Drexel was head of Drexel, Morgan & Co. of NYC; and head of Drexel, Harjes & Co., Paris. With George William Childs (1829-94) he owned the Philadelphia Public Ledger. See PEF.
Drexel, Morgan & Co. See: Peabody, George (1795-1869), Critics-18-32.
Dublin, Ireland. GP wrote of poverty he saw in rural Ireland during his first nine-month commercial buying trip to Europe (Nov. 1827-August 1828). He wrote to his sister Sophronia Phelps Peabody (April 16, 1828): "As soon as you leave this city [Dublin] the inhabitants of the smaller towns and villages are in the most deplorable state of Poverty and wretchedness. It was not unusual, on leaving a public house in a country town, to be [surrounded] by 20 or 30 beggars at a time, which always excited in my mind feelings of congratulations, that I lived in a country where such things are unknown, but where industry and economy never fail to procure the comforts of life." Ref. GP, Paris, to Sophronia Peabody, April 16, 1828, quoted in Schuchert and LeVene, pp. 70-71. See Visits to Europe by GP. For GP's gift of a railing fence to the Catholic Church, Limerick, Ireland, see Ireland.
Dudley, Robert (fl. 1865-91), was the artist whose painting, HMS Monarch Transporting the Body of George Peabody," 1870, large oil on canvas, 43" x 72," depicted the British warship HMS Monarch, leaving Portsmouth harbor, England, to transport GP's remains across the Atlantic for burial in New England, accompanied by the USS corvette Plymouth. A photo by Mark Sexton of the painting appeared as the cover on The American Neptune, Fall 1995 (published at the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Mass.), and identified as "a recent museum acquisition in recognition of the bicentennial of George Peabody's birth. The same Robert Dudley is believed to have made a set of lithographs entitled "Memorial of the Marriage of HRH Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, to HRH Alexandra, Princess of Denmark," published 1864, London, by Day and Son. Ref. http://www.pem.org/neptune/desc554.htm (seen Dec. 29, 1999). See (under Ref.): American Neptune. Death and Funeral, GP's. Dudley, Robert. GP Bicentennial Celebration (Feb. 18, 1795-1995). Peabody, George, Illustrations. Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Mass.
Duke of Wellington (Arthur Wellesley Wellington, 1769-1852) was the guest of honor at GP's July 4, 1851, dinner, London. See Dinners, GP's, London. Great Exhibition of 1851, London (first world's fair).
Dunbar, Carl O. (1891-1979), was at Yale Univ.'s Peabody Museum of Natural History for 40 years, as graduate student in paleontology under Prof. Charles Schuchert (1858-1942), and for 17 years as director, succeeding Albert Eide Parr (1900-91). Ref. "Carl O. Dunbar...," p. 44.
Duncan, Sherman & Co. In 1864 Junius Spencer Morgan (1813-90), GP's partner in George Peabody & Co., London (from Oct. 1, 1854), placed his son, John Pierpont Morgan (Sr., 1837-1913), as junior partner in the NYC banking firm Duncan, Sherman & Co. (founded 1851 by Alexander Duncan), which chiefly represented George Peabody & Co., London. See Morgan, Junius Spencer. Redlich, Fritz.
Dunkeld, Perthshire, Scotland. GP went to rest at Dunkeld, Perthshire, in the Scottish highlands, particularly after his Oct. 1, 1854, partnership with Junius Spencer Morgan (1813-90).
Dunworth, John (1924-2005), had been education dean at Ball State Univ., Muncie, Ind., before becoming GPCFT's sixth and last president during 1974-79. Budget and other financial constraints forced the talks with VU that led to PCofVU merger, July 1, 1979. He resigned May 1, 1979, was named first dean of the then-new Univ. of W. Fla. College of Education, Pensacola; later served as Supt., Santa Ana, Calif., Unified School District; and came out of retirement to serve as principal for a year to help salvage an 83-student rural school facing closure in sparsely populated Blackwater River State Forest of the Fla. Panhandle. See PCofVU. Conkin, Peabody College, index.
Dwight, Sereno Edwards (1786-1850). 1-Same-Named Nephew. Sereno Edwards Dwight was headmaster of New Haven Gymnasium, New Haven, Conn., a European-type boarding school attended about 1830 by GP's nephew, George Peabody (1815-32), son of GP's older brother David Peabody (1790-1841). GP had earlier paid for this nephew's schooling at Bradford Academy, Bradford, Mass. (from 1827), and was prepared to pay his way through Yale College when the nephew died in Boston on Sept. 24, 1832, of scarlet fever. See Bradford Academy, Bradford, Mass. Peabody, David (GP's oldest brother). Peabody, George (1815-32, GP's nephew).
Dwight, Sereno Edwards (1786-1850). 2-"Deprived as I was…" This nephew's request for funds from his uncle to attend Yale College led GP to reply poignantly, May 18, 1831, from London (GP's underlining): "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 possess it, but it is now too late for me to learn and I can only do to those that come under my care, as I could have wished circumstances had permitted others to have done by me." Ref. GP, London, to George, son of David Peabody, May 18, 1831, Peabody Papers, PEM, Salem, Mass. Quoted in Schuchert and LeVene, p. 21.
Dwight, Sereno Edwards (1786-1850). 3-Career. Sereno Edwards Dwight was the son of Timothy Dwight (1752-1817), who was a Yale graduate (1769), won renown for his preaching as Congregational minister, and was Yale president (1795-1817). The son, Sereno Edwards Dwight, born in Greenfield Hill, Conn., was also a Yale graduate (1803), practiced law in New Haven (to 1816), was also a Congregational minister, Boston (1817-26), and with his brother Henry opened the short-lived New Haven Gymnasium (1829-31).
End of 3 of 14. Continued on 4 of 14. Send corrections, questions to: bfparke@frontiernet.net
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