Here’s a 1901 Letter Signed
by Civil War Abolitionist American Bishop
REV. HENRY CODMAN
POTTER, D.D., LL.D.
(1835 –
1908)
POPULAR 19th
CENTURY AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH CLERGYMAN and BISHOP,
EPISCOPAL CHURCH BISHOP OF THE DIOCESE OF NEW
YORK AT THE CATHEDRAL OF ST. JOHN THE DIVINE 1883-1908,
RECTOR OF
HISTORIC GRACE CHURCH IN NEW YORK CITY 1868-1883,
CIVIL WAR ERA ANTI-SLAVERY
EPISCOPAL PRIEST IN TROY, NEW YORK and TRINITY CHURCH IN BOSTON, MA 1858-1868,
PRESIDENT OF THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY (ACS) TO SEND
BLACK FREEMEN TO LIBERIA
&
ACTIVELY
INTERESTED IN SOCIAL IMPROVEMENT and CIVIC REFORM - AMONG HIS WRITINGS ARE THE
CITIZEN IN RELATION TO THE INDUSTRIAL SITUATION (1902) AND THE DRINK
PROBLEM IN MODERN LIFE (1905).
The
first stages in the building of the now historic Cathedral of St. John the
Divine in New York City were initiated by Bishop Potter (The corner-stone was
laid in 1892). He was actively interested in many other social improvements.
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HERE'S
A LETTER SIGNED BY POTTER, 1p., EXECUTED
ON BLACK-BORDERED MOURNING STATIONERY, and DATELINED, “No. 10, WASHINGTON SQUARE, NORTH [NEW YORK CITY], DEC. 6h 1901” TO
ABRAM STEVENS HEWITT
(1822 -
1903)
U.S. DEMOCRATIC PARTY CONGRESSMAN FROM NEW YORK
1870s-1880s,
87th
MAYOR OF NEW YORK CITY 1887-1888,
AIDED IN
OVERTHROWING THE “BOSS” TWEED RING
&
MILLIONAIRE IRON MANUFACTURER, INDUSTRIALIST and
PHILANTHROPIST.
THE LETTER
READS, IN FULL:
“Many thanks for your note, but it reminded me of a letter
which Phillips Brooks wrote to Bishop Clark, who urged the same difficulty, -
his rheumatism, - as a reason why he could not attend the clerical club in
Boston. “But my dear Bishop,” said Brooks,
“it is not your legs we want, but the other end of you,” - - and so say
we! Ever Yours affectionately, H.C.
Potter.”
BOLDLY EXECUTED &
SIGNED BY POTTER!
The document measures 5” x 8” and is in very fine+
condition.
A RARE ADDITION TO YOUR AMERICAN CLERGY
HISTORICAL AUTOGRAPH, MANUSCRIPT & EPHEMERA COLLECTION.
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BIOGRAPHY
OF BISHOP HENRY C. POTTER
Henry Codman Potter (May 25, 1834 – July
21, 1908) was a bishop of the Episcopal
Church of the United States. He was the seventh bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New York.
Potter was "more praised and appreciated, perhaps, than any public man in
New York City's long list of great citizens".
Potter "destroyed all the material which was needed to write a
satisfactory" biography. Both of his major biographers, George Hodges
(1915) harvp error: multiple targets (2×):
CITEREFHodges1915 (help) and James Sheerin
(1933), had to use "newspaper clippings",
augmented by remembrances of people who knew him. Sheerin also had "access
to the complete files" of George F. Nelson, who had been the Potter's
secretary for much of his tenure at Grace Church and for all his years as
bishop.[16]
In 1818, Alonzo
Potter graduated from Union
College in Schenectady, New York, with "the highest
honors". He returned to the college as professor of mathematics and
natural philosophy from 1821 to 1826. During that time (1823), he married Sarah
Maria Nott, who was the college president's daughter. Henry Codman was their
fifth son. Henry was born on May 25, 1834 and was baptized in St. George's
Church on April 14, 1835.[17][18]
In 1839, Potter's mother Sarah Nott Potter died. She was giving birth to
her seventh child and only daughter. Potter was only five years old, but his
father described his mother's many virtues for Henry. Among her virtues,
"she gave herself, seemingly without a pang, to her household, to her
friends, and to anyone whom she could make more happy". She was "a
centre of delight to all who knew her".[19][20]
According to his mother's request, Henry and the other children were
placed under the care of his mother's cousin Sarah Benedict. Henry's father
married Miss Benedict in 1840. They had three boys. Thus, altogether, Alonzo
Potter had ten children: seven (six boys and one daughter) by Sarah Nott and
three boys by Sara Benedict.[21]
and[20]
Henry Codman Potter's siblings were as follows:[22]
The first eleven years of Henry Codman's life were spent in Schenectady.
In the Union College town and in his home, "the pursuit of knowledge"
was pervasive.[3]
In 1845, when Alonzo Potter was consecrated as bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of
Pennsylvania, the Potters moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
After the move, Henry (at age eleven) was having difficulty with Latin and
began "a habit of swearing". Henry spent two months with the Rev. Robert Traill Spence Lowell
to be tutored in Latin and to be cured of his swearing. Mr. Lowell successfully
accomplished both goals.[30]
In the spring of 1846, Bishop Alonzo Potter had the Academy of the
Protestant Episcopal Church in the City of Philadelphia reopened. Henry
completed his secondary education at the academy. While attending the Academy, Henry
showed no evidence of a call to the ministry. He did not take the classes in
Greek and Hebrew offered to "candidates for the ministry".[31][13]
In 1854, the nineteen-year-old Potter was working in a "wholesale
dry-goods house". In August 1854, he was "converted".[32]
Little is reported about the conversion experience, but two factors contributed
to it. One was a sermon preached by M. A. de Wolf Howe,
rector of St. Luke's Church, Philadelphia. The other was the influence of Clara
Boyd Jacobs who owned an iron mine and forge in Spring Grove, Pennsylvania.
When the Alonzo Potter family visited Spring Grove, Henry came under her
influence. He later said that she turned "his mind in the direction of
religion".[33]
Potter did not take a "full college course in preparation" for
seminary. However, he became Self-taught
by "extensive reading" throughout his life. As busy as he was,
"he found time . . . to read". In his lectures, writings, sermons,
and addresses, Potter demonstrated his wide reading. The lectures he delivered
at Kenyon College in 1901 and at Yale
University in 1902 showed that Potter had read John Stuart
Mackenzie, Introduction to Social Philosophy, George Howell, Trade-Unionism,
New and Old, Edward Bibbens & Eleanor Marx Aveling, Working Class
Movement in America, Geoffrey Drage's Labor Problem, Shailer
Mathews' Social Teaching of Jesus, William Hurrell Mallock, Labor and
the Popular Welfare, the three volumes Sir Frederick Morton Eden, State
of the Poor, the works of Frederick Denison Maurice,
Charles Kingsley,
and Thomas Hughes, and "other like
books".[34][35]
In 1854, Potter entered the Theological Seminary in Virginia located in
Alexandria, Virginia. He graduated in 1857.[14][36]
Potter's father told him he needed to receive his theological education at this
seminary.[37]
Potter indicated that he was pleased with his father's choice because he
was a loyal alumnus who supported the seminary with words and gifts. In 1873,
while he was rector of Grace Church in New York City, he served on a committee
to raise money for the seminary, On October 23, 1883, at the Episcopal Church's
General Convention, Virginia Seminary alumni met. Potter "recalled
pleasant incidents of his Seminary life". He also gave money for enlarging
the seminary chapel and for a Bible, Prayer Books, and Hymnals for use in the
chancel.[38]
The Theological Seminary in Virginia was "pervaded by the warmth of
religion, where men of a kindly and sympathetic spirit, conscientious,
studious, and saintly persons, were teaching a reasonable theology".
Students were encouraged "to make up their own minds". In this
atmosphere, Potter was "directed and encouraged, and his life deepened and
enriched".[39]
In the summer of 1856, between his middle and senior years in the
seminary, Potter was a lay-reader in a parish in Mont Alto, Pennsylvania.
As the lay reader, Potter was in charge of the Sunday School. He began a church
choir, and gave lectures in the nearby farmhouses. He prepared his own sermons.
Writing to the parish a decade later Potter said, "Few places can have
more attraction for me than Mont Alto. I look back when I remember my summer
with you to some of the brightest memories of my life".[40]
After graduating in 1857, Potter was ordained deacon on May 27, 1857 in St.
Luke's Church, Philadelphia. After that, his father assigned him
to the parish in Greensburg, Pennsylvania.[41]
Potter was twice married: to Eliza Rogers Jacob in 1857 and to Mrs. Alfred
Clark in 1902.
On October 8, 1857, Potter married, as his first wife, Eliza Rogers Jacob.
She died on June 29, 1901. They had six children:[13]
Potter's biographers tell little about Eliza Jacob and say nothing about
how Potter felt about her. There is little information about their children in
the biographies. However, from a letter written by their daughter Jane Potter
Russell, "it was clear that the Potters’ family life was good". The
father "cared deeply for his children," his children "cared for
and respected him, and "all the recollections are happy".[47]
On June 29, 1901, Eliza Rogers Jacob Potter died suddenly at home. She was
survived by a son and five daughters. The funeral was at Grace Church in New
York City.[48][49]
On October 4, 1902, fifteen months after the death of his first wife,
Potter married his second wife, Mrs. Alfred Corning Clark
(née Elizabeth Scriven) (1848–1909). Mrs. Clark, of Manhattan
and Cooperstown, New York, had been a widow for six years. She belonged to the
Episcopal Church, concurred with Potter's "religious and social
desires," and had helped him in his work as bishop. Both families were
"cordially in favor of the wedding".[12][50]
By this marriage, Potter gained four stepsons: Edward Severin Clark,
Robert Sterling Clark,
F. Ambrose Clark,
and Stephen Carlton Clark.[13]
The second Mrs. Potter died on March 4, 1909 "after a short illness,"
less than eight months after Potter's own death.[51]
As a priest, Potter served in four parishes before becoming a bishop.
When Potter went to Greensburg, Pennsylvania in 1857, its population was
"about thirteen hundred inhabitants". For intellectual friendship,
Potter had only "a Roman Catholic lawyer who was a drunkard" and
"an infidel physician who was a rake".[52]
While in Greensburg, on October 15, 1857, Potter was ordained a priest by
Bp Samuel Bowman of Diocese of
Pittsburgh. To fulfill his "missionary obligations," Potter conducted
"occasional services in adjoining towns". He bought a horse which he
"fed and groomed".[53]
In 1857, Potter refused a call to Calvary Church in a suburb of
Pittsburgh. However, in May 1859 he accepted a call to St. John's Church, Troy,
N.Y.[54]
Potter was the rector of St. John's Church, Troy, N.Y. from 1859 to 1866.[13]
In the years preceding Potter's tenure, there had been "frequent
changes" in rectors partly caused by "parochial disagreement".
After seven years as rector, when Potter resigned, the vestry wrote him,
"Before you came among us, we well remember the dissentient views that
obtained not only in our own body but in the congregation which we represent."
This did not happen during Potter's incumbency.[55]
Both Potter and his wife were active in the church and in Troy
organizations. After five years, the parish had grown from seventy families to
a hundred and sixty. The number of communicant had increased from a hundred and
fifty to three hundred and five. The church had to be remodeled to provide room
for the congregation. In 1881, a later rector of St. John's said that the
growth of the parish during Potter's tenure was partly due to his
"remarkable personal influence" and partly to way he presented
"the church's teaching" especially to people who were not members.[56]
Potter's success at St. John's made him widely known. In 1862, he was
called to Christ Church in Cincinnati, Ohio, and in 1863, he was called to St.
Paul's Church in Albany, New York. In 1863, he was offered the presidency of
Kenyon College. He declined them all.[57][13]
In April 1866, Potter accepted a call from Trinity Church, Boston, as
Assistant Minister on the Greene Foundation. The vestry of St. John's wrote him
an appreciative farewell. There were "a hundred young men" at the
station to bid Potter farewell when he left Troy.[57]
Potter was Assistant Minister on the Greene Foundation, at Trinity Church,
Boston, Massachusetts from 1866 to 1868.[13]
In 1866, he was made the secretary of the Episcopal Church's House of
bishops and retained this position until 1883 when he was.[13]
In 1868, Potter accepted a call to be the rector of Grace Church, New York City.
The vestry of Trinity Church gave Potter a letter thanking him for "the
uninterrupted prosperity spiritual and secular" he had brought to the
parish.[58]
When Potter became rector of Grace Church (New York City), the previous
rector had just died and before that he was partially disabled by a carriage accident
in 1865. Therefore, he was unable to provide leadership, and "the church
drifted". The focus of its activities was its members. There were Sunday
worship and a Sunday School. The women had a Sewing Society. The minister
visited his parishioners. In contrast, Potter possessed "immense practical
perceptions". Potter brought a different understanding of parish life. He
believed that "religion should minister to the whole man". He
introduced new things such as "Christmas trees, and choirs of men and boys,
and daily services and weekly communions, and flowers at Easter, and church
schools and church infirmaries, and parish houses". Under Potter's
leadership Grace Church reached "out to an environing community".[59]
Under Potter's leadership Grace Church became known as "New York's
most picturesque and useful parish". George F. Nelson, who was Potter's
assistant at Grace Church, attributes the progress to the fact that "the
Rector and his Vestry were brethren dwelling together in unity. A discordant
note among them was unthinkable".[60][61]
The Panic of 1873 brought "hard
times" for the people. This condition made Potter's work more difficult.
It also made him face "the problem of the poor" and "to study it
more carefully." In 1874, Potter used what he had learned in his study
about poverty in his Sixth Annual Account of the Parish Work Potter when he
addressed the question of how best to aid and relieve the poor. In summary, he
said the following:[62]
1. "It should be remembered, in the
first place, that no rule for helping poor people, any more than any other
people, can be a sweeping one of universal application."
2. There are "professional
paupers." They are "not entitled to the indiscriminate
benefactions" which increase the number of such paupers. The "truer
and more Christian charity" would be to help them find work.
3. There are those who held "the
clearest claim upon our sympathy and help." These are "the sick, the
crippled, the blind or imbecile, or otherwise incapacitated; poor women and
untaught childhood; children and young girls left orphaned or alone in this
great city; persons of gentle nurture and antecedents who have met with
reverses; all these at our doors, and then the family of the stranger and the
missionary beyond them, alike have a claim." Meeting their needs should
have priority
4. Finally, Potter said in his Sixth
Annual Account of the Parish Work that "the cynicism and indifference
which sneers at all charity alike" is worse than "the sentimentalism
of indiscriminate and thoughtless charity."
On December 19, 1874, Potter was elected as bishop of the Diocese
of Iowa on the second ballot. However, he declined the
election because, as he said, "his commitment to Grace Church had
priority."[63]
In October 1875, Potter called Sister Louise, a member of the Sisterhood
of the Holy Communion, as Parish Visitor at Grace Chapel, and she accepted. One
of the things she did was organize St. Catharine's Guild. The Guild had
seventeen members. They were all working women who had families to care for.
The Guild members visited and cared for "the sick poor" by sewing for
and reading to them. They also helped disabled persons get to worship. They
brought children to be baptized and adults to Sister Louise's Bible class,
which had more than 150 members.[64]
Potter's desire to minister to the poor was actualized by building the
Grace Memorial House as a nursery and rebuilding Grace Chapel in 1876 for use
as a community center offering classes teaching English and other things to
immigrants.[65]
In Potter's vision, the "ideal parish" was permeated by both a
"sense of privilege" and a "sense of responsibility."
Church people "should be intent not on the advancement" of the
Christian Church, but on "the health, the character, and the happiness of
all the citizens." This meant that serving God was not for just religious
professionals, but "all are summoned to serve Him in the normal
occupations of the common life." While insisting on serving God through
"social service" by the parish and its members, Potter stressed
"the essential necessity of the life of the Spirit." In the layout of
church buildings the social service buildings, Grace Hall and Grace House, were
beside Grace Chapel. This layout bore witness "to the fact that they who
would serve the community well must first seek strength from on high."[66]
By the end of Potter's tenure at Grace Church, four new buildings had been
built. In Grace Chapel, there were services in German. Pastoral visits were
being made. The children were being instructed. There were sixteen
organizations which addressed "a wide range of spiritual and physical
needs." These included St. Catherine's Guild, Industrial School, St.
Luke's Association, Ladies’ Benevolent Society, Woman's Missionary Society,
Grace House Library and Reading Room, Day Nursery, Grace House by the Sea in
Far Rockaway, Long Island, St. Agnes Guild, and Ladies’ Domestic Missionary
Relief Association.[67][68]
Henry C. Potter's uncle Horatio
Potter had been bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New York
since 1854. On September 12, 1883, he asked for an assistant. On September 27,
1883, during the regular Diocesan Convention, an election was held. Potter was
elected on the third ballot. He accepted the next day. He was consecrated at
Grace Church on October 20, 1883.[69]
The new bishop remained as rector of Grace Church until the end of 1883.
In his last sermon, he said, "looking back today, after fifteen years and
more, I rejoice to remember that this parish has at least striven to be
plenteous in peace, affluent in faith, worship and good works. May God keep it
so, and more and more make it so, through all the years to come."[70]
After Potter died, a marble bust of him was placed in the North Transept
of Grace Church.[61]
On September 27, 1883, Potter was elected assistant bishop to his uncle,
Horatio Potter, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New York, and was
consecrated on October 20, 1883.[4]
The full account of Potter's election as assistant bishop and his consecration
can be read online at The
Election and Consecration of the Rev. Henry Codman Potter, D.D., LL D.: As
Assistant Bishop of the Diocese of New York (Episcopal
Church. Diocese of New York, J. Pott, 1883.) Henry Potter was
assistant bishop until Bishop Horatio Potter died on January 2, 1887. At that
time, he became officially the Bishop of New York as he had been in fact.[71]
On the night of his consecration, Potter visited the Midnight Mission run
by the Sisters of St. John the Baptist.
On the next day, he preached to prisoners in the penitentiary on Blackwell's Island.[72]
By 1883, Potter realized the Episcopal Church needed some way for
"reaching sinners." Therefore, he decided to "import a
successful English Missioner" for "a general revival in the Episcopal
parishes of New York." During the Advent season of 1885, "the mission
was held simultaneously in twenty-one parishes."[73]
The Churchman for December 26, 1885 carried an article, which it
had requested, by Potter about the mission. Potter began the article by
differentiating the Advent Mission from Revivalism
with its "emotional excitement." The Mission was carrying out
"the idea of Advent season," namely, "preaching, personal
urgency, confession of sin, communion with God in the blessed sacrament of His
son." Then, while recognizing that "the results of the Mission are
not easily ascertained," he outlined some of the things the mission
accomplished.<refThe
Churchman. Churchman Company. 1885. Retrieved November 29, 2019.</ref>
1. Preparation for the Mission, by a
group of clergymen, began a year before it took place. Their meetings began
with "a celebration of the Holy Communion" followed by "an
informal devotional meeting."
2. The Mission was "its absence of
excitement." But there was "clear and faithful teaching" and a
"determined endeavor to press home the truth upon the personal
conscience."
3. The Mission included an "informal
and personal approach to individuals" in the "personal counsels and
interviews" conducted after the meetings. Potter said that there were many
testimonies to the benefit of this personal approach.
4. The Mission reached the "lapsed
baptized and confirmed" members. Many such people were "awakened and
recalled."
5. The Mission showed "the value of
informal methods" in reaching the lapsed. "Greater freedom" in
prayers and hymns "brought home" what the formal Prayer Book services
had not.
6. The Mission demonstrated two things:
(1) "the power of the Church to reach men" and (2) "the value of
trained missioners as preachers."
7. The Mission "deepened the
faith" of the people carried it out.
Race relations concerned Potter "for many years." It was not the
"central issue" for him, but it was important enough to him that he
"devoted considerable time and energy to it."[74]
He served on the board of the John
F. Slater Fund for the Education of Freedmen.[75]
However, as with many of his contemporaries, Potter's "concern was
moderate."[76]
Potter was first involved in race relations between blacks and whites
while a student at the Virginia Theological Seminary
in Alexandra, Virginia. The student body was composed of students from the
north and south "in about equal numbers." The question of slavery was
discussed in seminary meetings with passionate disagreement.[77]
The father of the student Potter was Bishop Alonzo
Potter who was anti-slavery, so it likely that his son was
also.[78]
In 1817, the American Colonization Society
(ACS) was founded. Before the American Civil War,
it had sent more than twelve thousand black settlers to Liberia.
Two Episcopal clergymen Bishop William
Meade and the Rev. William Augustus Muhlenberg
supported the Society. Because of their influence, Potter became interested in
the Society. In 1868, he was elected as "a life director."[79][80]
In 1886, when Potter was elected as vice-president, he warned the Society
that would not do much, and attended no meetings until January 1892 when he was
elected as president because he had "the respect of blacks and whites."
At the time of his election, Potter was in England addressing the British Christian Union
about the contrast between the homogeneity of an English diocese and the
"racial patchwork" of his diocese. Potter accepted the office on
condition that the Society would adopt "new purposes and procedures."[81][82]
In October 1892, Potter spelled out the changes he wanted. Rather than
"getting rid of America's racial problem," the Society's goal should
be based on "a positive interest in Africa's future." The Society
should recruit "a few industrious, well-educated black people" to
move to Liberia "renovate the Liberian social order" so that Liberia
could "depend less on others." However, the Society was unable to
recruit such people. Therefore, Potter set two other goals for the Society: (1)
it would work for "the rejuvenation of the Afro-American character"
in the United States, and (2) it would send "black missionaries" to
Africa to teach and to convert to Christianity.[83][84]
For "the rejuvenation of the Afro-American character" in the
United States, Potter supported "education and equal opportunity for the
freedmen." He said that "race prejudice dies slowly and hard,"
but, optimistically, Potter said that he thought it was "steadily
diminishing." However, in the 1890s, there was a "counter attack
aimed at erasing African Americans' participation in politics and the
economy" by disenfranchisement
in every southern state, by Jim
Crow laws segregating public facilities, and by lynching.
These events made Potter less optimistic about the "decline of race
prejudice." He said that "prejudice" and "race
antagonism" should be "outgrown," but, "as a matter of fact,"
they are not.[85][86]
Potter's attempt to reform the Society was met with criticism from people like
Wendell Phillips Garrison
editor of The Nation, and his fund-raising
efforts failed. On February 7, 1894, Potter spoke at the Old South Meeting House
in Boston, but he aroused "more opposition than support." After
Potter's speech, several "black leaders" stood to "denounce the
society and Liberia." Later, a group of "black leaders" met at
the Charles Street A.
M. E. Church in Boston and "passed resolutions denouncing
Potter's address."[87]
Potter received verbal support from another Episcopal bishop Thomas Underwood Dudley
and from Jeremiah Rankin the president of
Howard University,
but that did not help Potter's fund-raising effort. He made a final
fund-raising effort in New York City in small meetings organized by two of his
priests Percy Stickney Grant
and David H. Greer, but again without
success.[87]
In addition to opposition to the cause for which Potter was working, his
efforts were hampered by the Panic
of 1893. This financial panic created a depression that
reduced the income of all "benevolent agencies" in a
"staggering" way. Potter said, "The present unexampled
straitness has crippled philanthropic enterprises beyond anything I have ever
known."[88]
In 1894, a symposium was held on the subject of lynching during which
Joseph Cook, a Boston preacher and editor of Our Day: A Record and Review of
Current Reform, criticized Potter for his failure to speak out in
opposition to lynching. [89][90]
In 1899, Potter resigned as president of the Society, ending his
participation. In 1911, the American Colonization Society died.[83][91]
In 1865, the Episcopal Church's General Convention adopted a thanksgiving
"for peace in the country and union in the Church." However, the
thanksgiving did not include a "thanksgiving for the restoration of union
in the nation, and for the removal of the curse of slavery." Potter
expressed indignation at the convention's action. In his sermons, he
"maintained that the victory over slavery was a victory for divine
justice."[92]
In 1870, the General Convention established the permanent Commission on
Home Missions to Colored People. Potter attended the meetings and preached
"in support of its work."[78]
One of Potter's early acts as bishop was to take "a prominent
part" in the Consecration of the Negro Samuel David Ferguson
as Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Liberia.
In 1907, the year before he died, Potter "incurred odium" during the
General Convention held in Richmond, Virginia "by asking a colored clergyman
to be a guest at his table."[76]
"Human brotherhood under a divine father" was a constant theme
for Potter. After the Reconstruction Era
ended in 1877, he preached against the "spirit of caste" and warned
of the resulting "bitter and bloody fruit." He said that the Church
exists to "resist and rebuke this hateful spirit." No matter what
distinctions exist in society, "inside the household of the common Father
. . . they are to be obliterated and forgotten." However, along with his
belief that blacks were "equal to whites as children of a common divine
father," Potter held that blacks "needed further preparation before
assuming the full rights and responsibilities of American political and
economic life."[93]
In the post Civil War period, white racial reformers, both religious and
secular, made use of three basic strategies: "first, advocacy of civil
rights for blacks; second, education for blacks in the
southern states through domestic missions and philanthropic agencies; and
third, support for the colonization or resettlement of blacks in Africa,
especially in Liberia." As president of the American Colonization Society,
Potter was "prominently involved in the colonization movement." He
also "provided some support for religious and philanthropic educational
work by and for blacks." However, he did not work for the civil rights of
blacks. During his four decades in New York City, Potter "addressed many
public issues," but there is no evidence of his speaking out on civil
rights issues. Potter mentioned the lynchings of blacks only once. It was not
in public discourse, but in 1898 in his "argument against U.S.
administration of the Philippines."[94]
In June 1875, Booker T. Washington
graduated from the Hampton
Institute in Virginia, and Potter attended the ceremony. As
Washington recalled the occasion, after giving his "graduating
address," Potter took his hand and said, "If you ever come to New
York and want a friend, come in and see me."[95]
Potter also indicated that the occasion marked the beginning of a
friendship with Washington. He told The New York Times
in 1910 that "Mr. Washington has been on a number of occasions a guest at
my table." Potter added his belief about relations between white and
blacks: "It is the man, not the color or the nationality, that counts. I
can see no reason why a negro, if he be a man of intellect and culture, should
not be received in the home of any man." Not only were Potter and
Washington friends, Potter supported Washington's educational efforts for
blacks.[96]
Washington also held Potter in high regard. After Potter died, a memorial
service for him was held by the People's Institute. Washington was one of the
speakers. He praised Potter for giving him "safe and sound" advice
concerning black people and Tuskegee Institute
and he praised Potter for "his consuming desire to serve his fellow
man." He said that Potter was "always guided" by one question:
"Is it the right thing to do?"[97]
Washington recalled the last time he saw Potter in a public meeting. It
was on a Sunday afternoon in a "little crowded negro church," which
was not an Episcopal Church. He said that "after a busy Sunday
morning," Potter arrived and "for an hour he poured out his great
soul before that audience of colored men and women."[97]
Washington closed his talk by quoting from the Robert
Burns poem "A Man's A Man For A' That," in which
Burns says that a "man's character" should be "the measure of a
man's true worth," not "wealth, or lack of it, and social
class."[98][97]
On May 10, 1886, Potter issued a pastoral letter to his clergy regarding
labor. The Church Association for the Advancement of the Interests of Labor
(CAIL) later used the document as its inspiration, especially its statement
that "what the laborer wants from his employer is fair and fraternal
dealing, not alms-giving; and a recognition of his manhood rather than a
condescension to his inferiority." In 1892, Potter was made the
association's honorary vice-president. In 1893, he was made the chairman of its
Committee of Mediation and Arbitration. When the National Civic Federation
was established in 1900, Potter was from the start a member of the executive
committee. As such, he was involved with the steel strike of 1901
and the anthracite Coal strike of 1902.
He worked for the public interest to be considered in disputes between capital
and labor. In one case, President George Frederick Baer
of the anthracite railways argued, "cannot I do what I will with my
own?" Potter replied, "Ah, well, but what is my own?"[99]
In August 1901, a strike by the Amalgamated
Association of Iron and Steel Workers against the United States Steel
Corporation "threatened to be a national disaster."
Potter wrote a letter to William Randolph Hearst
suggesting "a symposium of clever men discussing the question of wages,
common ownership of plants and land—anything to make the people think."[100]
The symposium was held and reported in the book John
Punnett Peters, Labor and Capital: A Discussion of the Relations of Employer
and Employed. (1902).
In December 1902, Potter spoke to the Men's Club of Grace Chapel about
what he learned from the 1901 strike. He said, "I believe in strikes. I
believe also in the conservative value of the organization from which the
strikes come. . . . This Republic stands for personal freedom; anything that
impairs that freedom, the country will not stand for." Looking toward the
future, Potter said that he believed that "the time was approaching when
strikes will cease, because men will ask themselves in the presence of their
differences, not what considerations of profit and dividends, but what
considerations of justice and humanity are involved."[101]
In 1907, the General Convention of
the Episcopal Church, "as a result largely of Bishop
Potter's influence," action was taken to form diocesan Social Service Commissions.
He chaired the one for his diocese and was active in it until his death.[102]
In his writing, speaking, and acting Potter demonstrated that he was
"frankly the champion of the working-man." He was chosen by labor
unions "to arbitrate their disputes with their employers" because
they were sure that he would be both fair and sympathetic. He served on the
Committee on Conciliation and Mediation of the Civic Federation
This position fit Potter's character which was without "partisan instincts."
He worked for "truth and right" without regard for "names and
labels." He was not "either socialist or capitalist." He
"spoke with equal frankness" to corporate executives, many of whom he
knew personally, and "to the labor unions," telling them "exactly
what he thought."[103]
By 1887, "the erection of a cathedral" seemed to Potter
"not only important but necessary," so he issued "a public
appeal to the citizens of New York" for funds to build a cathedral, which
would become the Cathedral of St. John
the Divine. In the appeal, Potter listed five ways that a
cathedral would meet "practical and urgent demands."[104]
1. "It would be the people's
church."
2. "It would be the rightful centre
of practical philanthropies."
3. "It would have a pulpit in which
the best preachers . . . from all parts of the land . . . would have a
place."
4. "It would be the fitting shrine
of memorials of our honored dead."
5. "It would tell to all men
everywhere that 'the life is more than meat and the body than raiment."
Potter said that "our democratic age demands a place of worship that
will not disregard the teachings of the Founder of Christianity. In this
Cathedral there will be no pews, no locked doors, no pre-payment for sittings,
no reserved rights of caste or rank, but one and the same welcome for
all."[105]
There was opposition to building a cathedral, but "for the most
part," people who spoke out "were in favor of the plan."[106]
Originally, a board of trustees was convened to purchase property
"below Central Park", and several
donors were secured. However, there were insufficient funds to purchase the
land after the donors lost money in the Panic
of 1873. When Henry Potter became assistant bishop, he
convened the Trustees to address the property issue. In 1887, a site was chosen
on Morningside Heights
about four miles north of the original choice. This placed the Cathedral
"on the highest ground in Manhattan," 151 feet (46 meters) higher
than Central Park.[61][107]
At this time, more foreign tongues were spoken in New York than
English."[108]
In making plans for the cathedral, Potter recognized that New York was a
polyglot metropolis. Thus, plans for the cathedral included "seven Chapels
of Tongues" about the Sanctuary for services in different languages.[109][61]
In 1888, Potter was away from his diocese in England attending the Lambeth Conference.
While in England, he gave "an address at Lambeth
Palace commemorating the centennial of the organization of
the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States," and he preached in
three cathedrals.[110][111]
On December 27, 1892, the Feast of St. John the Evangelist, Potter laid
the cathedral's cornerstone, and in the winter of 1896–1897, Potter worked
full-time raising money for cathedral.[112]
In 1901, Potter founded the Choir School of The Cathedral of St. John the
Divine."[113]
On April 30, 1889, Potter gave a sermon on the centennial of George
Washington's inauguration in Trinity Church's St. Paul's Chapel. The President Benjamin
Harrison and Vice-President Levi
P. Morton of the United States were in attendance. Two former
presidents were present along with "an assembly of officers of the
Cabinet, senators, members of Congress, and notable citizens, including a score
of governors of states." It was generally thought that Potter was the only
speaker who rose to the occasion. The New York Times wrote that
"the most remarkable address brought out by the centennial celebration was
the sermon by Bishop Potter at St. Paul's Chapel."[114]
The full sermon can be read at A
Form of Prayer and Thanksgiving to Almighty God
delivered on Tuesday, April 30, 1889, the one hundredth anniversary of the
inauguration of George Washington.
Potter's sermon gave him "a national reputation." He became
"recognized throughout the country as a man of wisdom to understand the
times, and of courage to express the convictions based on that
understanding."[115]
Potter possessed a combination of "oratorical skill, episcopal status and
social acceptability." These characteristics made him one of the
Protestant preachers, along with Henry Ward Beecher
and Lyman Abbott, most often called upon
for "major public functions."[116]
By 1898, Potter had been bishop of New York fourteen years. People turned
to Potter "not as the bishop, but the man," whose "words were
heard with attention" and whose "acts were of interest to the
public." He became known as "the first citizen of New York."[117]
Two noted Americans wrote Potter expressing their admiration for him. One was Henry Martyn Field,
owner and editor of the Evangelist, who wrote this letter:[118]
My dear Bishop Potter, you are the best man in the world. You always say
the right word and do the right thing, but how you find the time to do it all
is a mystery. Your influence goes far beyond your own Episcopal Church, large
and powerful as that is, and you are equally at home among the rich and poor. I
have been looking to you to solve some of the social problems that perplex us
all. For my part, I am groping in the dark, but God give us light. May you live
far into the next century, and help greatly to make the world purer, sweeter
and happier than it now is.
The other letter came from the American author Henry
van Dyke, who wrote, "I want to say to you, beneficent
prelate, that there is not a preacher nor a church of any order in New York
that does not reap a substantial benefit from the fact that you are the bishop
of this diocese, and therefore we are all, in our several modes and manners,
gratefully yours."[119]
In May 1898, after the United States defeated the Spanish fleet in the
Philippines, the United States had two colonies in the Pacific: the Philippines
by conquest, the Hawaiian Islands by annexation. By action of the General Convention of
the Episcopal Church of 1898, Potter and the Rev. Percy Stickney Grant
were appointed to visit these two colonies and assess their missionary
potential. In spite of the fact that Potter had thought that the United States
action was morally "a colossal blunder," after his return to New
York, he said, "We have got the responsibility of governing the
Philippines, for better or for worse. . . . It is too late to get rid of
them."[120]
Based on the Potter-Grant report, the 1901 General Convention made the
Philippine Islands and the Hawaiian Islands Missionary Districts and elected
bishops for them: Charles Brent for the Philippine
Islands and Henry Bond Restarick
for the Hawaiian Islands.[121]
In May 1899, Potter called the Rev. Robert
L. Paddock to be vicar of the new pro-cathedral. When Paddock
reported vice in the area to the police, they insulted Paddock. He found that
the police in the area were "in the pay of criminals." The September
1900 Diocesan Convention requested Potter to take action. He did so by writing
Mayor Robert Anderson Van Wyck
who, in turn passed the letter on to the President of the Police Board who, in
turn wrote Potter that the matter would be investigated, but with no apparent
action. In 1901, Potter again brought the unresolved matter to the Diocesan
Convention and called for action by citizens. The citizens of New York City
responded by organizing Citizens United and defeating the Tammany
Hall candidates in the next election in which Seth
Low was elected as mayor.[122]
Seth Low gave Potter "credit for an increased public desire for reform in
civil service appointments" by his 1889 Centennial Sermon in St. Paul's
Chapel."[123]
Potter was concerned about how the "evils of alcohol" affected
the poor and new immigrants. The abstinence approach was inadequate because
there would always be some people who drank alcohol. So Potter decided to
establish a tavern in which the staff would "monitor and guide patrons to
more responsible imbibing." Because the location was near an entrance to
the New York City Subway,
it was called the Subway Tavern. The tavern opened on August 2, 1904. It was
funded with $10,000 given by citizens including New York City alderman Herbert Parsons
and former lacrosse star Elgin
Gould. Potter wanted a tavern for working people which
would be "jovial and free-spirited without becoming debaucherous."[124]
In September 1905, The Advance, a weekly religious magazine, ran an
article called "Bishop Potter's Subway Tavern" by a clergyman who had
investigated the tavern. After giving the Subway Tavern credit for some
improvements over other taverns, the clergyman deemed it morally lacking on
four counts as follows:[125]
1. Liquor sold at the tavern does not
make drinkers sober.
2. A person can go to another tavern for
more drinks.
3. A person can acquire the drink habit
in the Subway Tavern and then drink elsewhere "to complete his ruin."
4. Even the limited drinking in the
Subway Tavern might ruin a person.
In conclusion, the clergyman wrote, "So far as I could learn or
observe in three visits at different hours and on two different days, the place
has all the dangers which those who opposed it anticipated."[125]
Shortly after The Advance article was published, the Subway Tavern
as Potter had envisioned it closed. A commercial saloon opened in the building.[124]
In 1908, Potter attended the Pan-Anglican Congress
in London. There were more than two hundred bishops and "several thousand
clergy and laity." Group meetings were held simultaneously in halls
throughout the city. Delegates looked for Potter because they viewed him
"as not only the greatest representative of American churchmen but as one
of whom any English speaking Christian might be proud." To them, Potter
combined "human graciousness" with "official dignity."
While in England, Potter "preached often in the greatest of English
pulpits," such as Canterbury Cathedral,
the Chapel Royal,
St. Paul's Cathedral
and Westminster Abbey.
The Pall Mall Gazette
wrote about his preaching that "even the smallest child in the gallery
could understand every word."[126]
In June 1890, Potter gave the Phi
Beta Kappa address at Harvard University.
His topic was "The Scholar and the State."[127]
In 1901, Potter delivered the Bedell lectures at Kenyon
College on the subject "Man, Men, and their
Master.""[128]
These lectures showed Potter "at his intellectual best."[35]
From April 21 to May 2, 1902, Potter delivered the William
E. Dodge lectures at Yale
University.[129]
The lectures can be read at The
Citizen in His Relation to the Industrial Situation: Yale Lectures.
In October 1905, Potter lectured at the University of St Andrews
in Scotland.[130]
On May 7, 1902, during a service in which Potter was to speak, he felt
faint. He spoke, but he cleared his schedule for a rest. This was the first
indication that after twenty years of demanding work as a bishop, "Bishop
Potter had broken down." His feeling faint marked "the beginning of
the end" for him.[136]
In September 1902, Potter told the Diocesan Convention that he needed
assistance "in the Episcopal oversight of the Diocese." As a
solution, the Convention voted for the election of a Bishop Coadjutor. On
October 1, 1903, David H. Greer was elected on the
first ballot. Greer was consecrated on January 26, 1904. In dividing the work,
Potter gave Greer the visitation of most city parishes. Potter did the
visitations to the "country parishes" and "the smaller churches
of the city."[137][138]
In 1905, Potter made his last trip abroad. He lectured at the University of St Andrews.
He preached in the Province
of York and in the Province of Canterbury.
From London, he traveled to Paris and wintered in Egypt. In March, he was in
charge of St. Paul's Church in Rome.
He spent Holy Week and Easter
in Dresden, Germany. After returning to New York, he continued "speaking
and preaching" and presiding over meetings and public assemblies.[139]
In May 1908, Potter "suffered another collapse." From then on,
his health became the dominant factor in his life. He was forced to decline the
invitation from the Archbishop of Canterbury
for the 1908 Lambeth Conference
because of poor health. In July 1908, he went to his wife's summer home in the
village of Cooperstown, N. Y. to recuperate. However, he was terminally ill
with "arteriosclerosis, an embolism in his right leg," and chronic
stomach and liver problems. So he was confined to the home. He died there on
July 21, 1908.[8][140]
After Potter's death, there was a private service for friends and family
in Cooperstown during which all the businesses were closed. The men of the
village marched behind the coffin to the train station from which Potter would
be sent to New York City for a later public service. Potter's body lay in state
in Trinity Church, New York City until the public funeral at Grace Church on
October 20, 1908, the twenty-fifth anniversary of Potter's consecration.
Potter's body was interred in the crypt of his Cathedral: the first interment
in the cathedral. It was later moved to the cathedral's Chapel of St. James, which
had been funded by Mrs. Potter.[9][140]
On October 31, 1908, The Outlook
carried the story of Potter's funeral in Grace Church. There were "more
than five hundred" clergy in the procession, including eighteen bishops.
The pall bearers were leading citizens of New York. "The church was
crowded with a great congregation representing all the best elements of
municipal life." The diversity of people who attended the funeral showed
that Potter was "not only an ecclesiastic of great position and influence,
but a great citizen, identified with many organizations dealing with the higher
life of the city." Many religious leaders attended the funeral: Jewish,
Presbyterian, Baptist, Methodist, Russian Orthodox, and the Persian, Greek, and
Armenian Churches.[141]
Two memorials were written in honor of Potter. One was by a committee of
diocesan clergy; the other by a committee of the Church Association for the
Advancement of the Interests of Labor (CAIL)
A committee of diocesan clergy prepared a Memorial for Potter.[9]
The Memorial said that "he was the Citizen-Bishop. Human life appealed to
him with irresistible force. Its problems and questions were of supreme
concern. His interest was as far as possible from any thought of condescension
or patronage. He did not force himself to show this interest. It was not the
question of a duty to which he bowed himself, but rather the vital movement of
his own nature. He was a man of the world in the best sense, and therefore
touched the world with an ease and freedom, a sense of mastery and knowledge, a
bright and eager interest in all its life, that made him above all else the
citizen. He was the citizen before he became the ecclesiastic. He was the
Citizen Bishop." The Memorial quoted from what was said of him by Rev. Walton
W. Battershall, who was in the Diocese of Albany with Potter when Potter was in
Troy, N. Y.: "He had insight, forecast, tact, knowledge of men, genial
touch of men, sympathy with his period, with American methods and ideals. He
was keen to catch the human appeal from all sorts and conditions of men. He had
that audacity, faith, courage, and faculty for organization, that give
leadership. . . . Prayer was to him the deepest reality of his life." The
memorial ended by characterizing Henry Codman Potter as a "true prophet,
true priest, true bishop."[142]
At the October 1908 meeting of the executive committee of the Church
Association for the Advancement of the Interests of Labor (CAIL), a
subcommittee was appointed to express the sorrow of the association in the loss
of Potter, who had been its president. Of Potter, the Memorial said in part,
"with a statesman's breadth of vision, he saw that [the great industrial
problems] were the most essential problems with which, at the moment,
Christianity has to grapple. . . . Bishop Potter's services as chairman of our
Committee on Mediation and Arbitration won for him on the one side, the
affection and the confidence of the laboring men of this city, and, on the
other side made him increasingly conscious of the necessity of official action
on the part of the Church for the solution of the labor problems of the
day."[143]
A July 1908 editorial in The New York Times
about Potter included the following words:[144]
He felt profoundly the brotherhood of the race, and he manifested courage,
force, independence of judgment, and great unselfishness in the application of
the principle to the relations of daily life. Apart from the more specific
duties of the Church, nothing engaged more intimately and passionately all the
energies of his nature than systematic work for the practical application of
the ideal of brotherhood to the aid of those to whom it is usually extended
only in pale and ineffectual theory.
In 1908, a Memorial Meeting sponsored by the People's Institute was held
in the Cooper Union. One of the speakers
Rabbi Joseph Silverman
said regarding Potter: "The city has been benefitted by his liberalism.
Many institutions have profited through his liberality in their inception and
development, and thousands upon thousands of human beings have been
strengthened in mind, in heart, and in spirit by his words of beauty and of
strength."[145]
Another speaker Booker T. Washington,
the famous educator, summed up his speech by saying, "He never asked of a
thing to do, Is it popular? He asked only, Is it the right thing to do?" A
third speaker Seth Low, once president of
Columbia University and mayor of New York, declared that Potter "so
eagerly helped the lowly because he claimed kinship with them."[146]
George F. Nelson, who was Potter's assistant at Grace Church, New York and
Bishop Potter's secretary throughout the twenty-five years of his Episcopate,
said of Potter that he was a "preacher, house-to-house pastor, organizer
and director" combined in one "alive and alert" person.
Everything human interested him and he viewed humanity as made in "the
image of the divinity that makes all men brothers." His ideal was "to
do justly, and love mercy and walk humbly with God" (Micah 6:8), and
nothing could "shake his loyalty to his ideal."[61]
[See Wikipedia article
for footnote references.]
<>>::<<>
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE HONORABLE
ABRAM STEVENS HEWITT
Abram Stevens Hewitt (July 31, 1822 –
January 18, 1903) was a teacher, lawyer,
an iron
manufacturer, chairman of the Democratic National Committee
from 1876 to 1877, U.S. Congressman,
and a mayor of New York City.
He was the son-in-law of Peter
Cooper (1791–1883), an industrialist,
inventor
and philanthropist. He is best known for
his work with the Cooper Union, which he aided Peter
Cooper in founding in 1859, and for planning the financing and construction of
the first subway line
of the New York City Subway,
for which he is considered the "Father of the New York City Subway
System".
Hewitt was born in Haverstraw, New York.
His mother, Ann Gurnee, was of French Huguenot
descent, while his father, John Hewitt, was from Staffordshire
in England
and had emigrated to the U.S. in 1790 to work on a steam
engine to power the water plant in Philadelphia.
Hewitt worked his way through and graduated from Columbia College
in 1842. He taught mathematics at the school, and
became a lawyer
several years later.
From 1843 to 1844, Hewitt traveled to Europe with his student, Edward Cooper,
the son of industrialist entrepreneur Peter
Cooper, and another future New York City mayor. During
their return voyage, the pair were shipwrecked
together. After this, Hewitt became "virtually a member of the Cooper
family", and in 1855 married Edward's sister, Sarah Amelia.
In 1845, financed by Peter Cooper, Hewitt and Edward Cooper started an
iron mill in Trenton, New Jersey,
the Trenton Iron Company, where, in 1854, they produced the first structural wrought
iron beams, as well as developing other innovative products.
Hewitt also invested in other companies, in many case serving on their boards.
Hewitt was known for dedicated work for the U.S. government and exceptionally
good relations with his employees.
After his marriage to Sarah Cooper, Hewitt supervised the construction of Cooper
Union, Peter Cooper's free educational institution, and
chaired the board of trustees until 1903.
In 1871, inspired by reformer Samuel
J. Tilden, Cooper was prominent in the campaign to bring about
the fall of the corrupt Tammany
Hall-based "Tweed Ring", led by the William
M. Tweed, and helped reorganize the Democratic Party
in New York, which Tweed and Tammany had controlled. He first ventured into
elective politics in 1874, when he won a seat in the U.S. House of
Representatives, where he served two terms, March 4,
1875 to March 3, 1879. He also became the head of the Democratic National Committee
in 1876, when Tilden ran for President. He served in the U.S. House again from
March 4, 1881 to December 30, 1886.
Hewitt's most famous speech was made at the opening of the Brooklyn
Bridge between Manhattan
Island and Brooklyn
in 1883.
In 1886,
Hewitt was elected mayor of New
York City when Richard
Croker of Tammany Hall – which had resumed its control of
the Democratic Party in the city – arranged for Hewitt to get the Democratic
nomination, despite his being the leader of the anti-Tammany
"Swallowtails" of the party: Croker needed a strong candidate to
oppose the United Labor Party candidate, political economist Henry
George. Tammany feared that a win by George might
reorganize politics in the city along class lines, rather than along ethnic
lines, which is where Tammany drew its power. Theodore Roosevelt,
running as the Republican Party
candidate, came in third. Hewitt was not successful as a mayor, due both to his
unpleasant character and nativist
beliefs: he refused, for instance, to review the St. Patrick's Day Parade, a
decision which alienated most of the Democratic power base. Hewitt also refused
to allow Tammany the control of patronage they wanted, and Croker saw to it
that Hewittt was not nominated for a second term.
Hewitt was considered a consistent defender of sound money practices – he
is famously quoted as saying "Unnecessary taxation is unjust
taxation." – and civil
service reform. He was conspicuous for his public spirit,
and developed an innovative funding and construction plan for the New York City Subway
system, for which he is known as the "Father of the New York City Subway
System".
Hewitt had many investments in natural resources, including considerable
holdings in West Virginia, where William
Nelson Page (1854–1932) was one of his managers. He was also an
associate of Henry Huttleston Rogers
(1840–1909), a financier and industrialist
who was a key man in the Standard Oil Trust,
and a major developer of natural resources. One of Hewitt's investments handled
by Rogers and Page was the Loup Creek Estate in Fayette County, West Virginia.
The Deepwater Railway
was a subsidiary initially formed by the Loup Creek investors to ship bituminous
coal from coal mines on their land a short distance to the main
line of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway
(C&O) along the Kanawha River. After rate disputes,
the tiny short line railroad
was eventually expanded to extend all the way into Virginia and across that
state to a new coal pier at Sewell's
Point on Hampton
Roads. Planned secretly right under the noses of the large
railroads, it was renamed the Virginian
Railway, and was also known as the "richest little
railroad in the world" for much of the 20th century.
As a philanthropist, Hewitt was especially interested in education. Columbia University
gave him the degree of LL.D. in 1887, and he was the president of
its alumni association in 1883, and a trustee from 1901 until his death. In
1876 he was elected president of the American Institute of
Mining Engineers, and was a founder and trustee of the
Carnegie Institution.
He was also a trustee of Barnard
College and of the American Museum of
Natural History.
Hewitt died at his New York City home on January 18, 1903, and was
interred at Green-Wood Cemetery.
His last words, after he took his oxygen tube from his mouth, were "And now, I am officially dead."
Hewitt's daughters, Amy, Eleanor, and Sarah Hewitt, built an astonishing
decorative arts collection that was for years exhibited at the Cooper Union and
later became the core collection of the Cooper-Hewitt
National Design Museum. His son, Peter Cooper Hewitt
(1861–1921), was a successful inventor, while another son, Edward Ringwood
Hewitt (1866–1957), was also an inventor, a chemist and an early expert on
fly-fishing. He published Telling on the Trout, among other books.
Hewitt's youngest son, Erskine Hewitt (1871–1938), was a lawyer and philanthropist
in New York City. He donated Ringwood
Manor to the State of New Jersey in 1936.
Abram S. Hewitt State Forest along the Appalachian
Trail was named in his honor.
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