Friday, October 31, 2014

The Victorian Millionaires : The Upstart Yesler Family of Seattle



Yesler's post-fire Pioneer Building, depicted ...
Yesler's post-fire Pioneer Building, depicted here in 1900. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Horse-drawn streetcar at what is now the corne...
Horse-drawn streetcar at what is now the corner of Occidental and Yesler, 1884 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
"The Public Library Building. / The prope...
"The Public Library Building. / The property belongs to the Yesler Estate, Incorporated," from brochure Seattle and the Orient (1900).This library, the former Henry Yesler home at Third and James, burned soon after this picture was taken, on January 2, 1901. It was replaced by a Carnegie library. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Seattle, Washington pioneer and mill owner Hen...
Seattle, Washington pioneer and mill owner Henry Yesler; also 2-time mayor of Seattle (Photo credit: Wikipedia)




My interest in the Yesler family was sparked by accident. I was doing research in to the family of my great Grandfather David Burgert and came across this information about the family of Sarah Burgert Yesler his second daughter. She was the wife of Henry Yesler one of the founding fathers of Seattle.

Henry Yesler is a man considered to be an economic founding father in Seattle and one of  their first millionaires. Henry had headed west in 1849 like many men to find gold . He arrived in Seattle Washington in 1852 and with great foresight built a steam powered saw mill. It provided much needed jobs for local settlers and for members of the Duwarnish tribe. The mill  was located on what is now known as Yesler Way. This area was called ‘Skid Road”, not because of poverty but because of the logs skidded down the embankment towards the mill.

The Yesler family built what was a rather large house at the time on the 1st Avenue and James Street.  It was said to resemble a store. It was not the typical dwelling of your successful Victorian entrepreneur. He waited after the death of his first wife Sarah Burger Yesler to build his Victorian mansion on the between 3rd and 4th St. on James. Here he lived his final days with his second wife who was only in her twenties.

  Henry Yesler also built the city’s first water system in 1854. The original system was described as a series of V shaped open air flumes that were mounted on First Hill and ran past the mill. This system only provided what was dirty water to the town’s people. He later made improvements using log pipes that they buried beneath the ground.
Henry Yesler had a sense of public duty and in his lifetime in Seattle he served as a county auditor, county commissioner, and mayor.

On June 6th I889 the Great Seattle fire burned the wooden buildings in the old business district. It also destroyed his steam powered mill.  The home of his 1st wife which had become known as Yesler Hall was also destroyed. Yesler instead built the Pioneer building where his first home had stood. Yesler died December 16th 1892. His mansion becomes the first Seattle Public Library but it too burned down in 1901.
Sarah Burgert Yesler arrived in Seattle mid summer of 1858. She had come to help her husband with the sawmill and other business enterprises. Sarah Yesler became the first lady of Seattle in her many years there. She was an active in the suffrage movement and worked to establish a free public library system.

Sarah had been separated from her husband for seven years while he had gone out west in search of gold. She stayed with relatives and raised their only child George. When she felt George was old enough to fare well without her, she undertook the dangerous journey west. Unfortunately, her son George succumbed to a local pestilence and died in 1859 while his parents were establishing themselves in Seattle. 
She spent many years there engaged in making the family business a success. She did not use financial success to become a Victorian lady of leisure. Sara’s first job was a cook for the saw mill employees.  She spent her later years involved in the Seattle Library association and many other benevolent ventures to benefit the youth of Seattle.
The Yeslers were not your typical Victorian upper class couples. They did not attend church. They instead hosted the famous Spiritualist W.E. Cheney at their home. They were followers of the concept of free love. They may have been somewhat influenced by relatives by marriage who had been involved in the religious cult that had established themselves in Oneida New York. These folks advocated free love and open marriage. Sarah is known to have had a very pubic romantic relationship with another women. Sara always considered herself loyal to her husband. She accepted his daughter from an affair with a Native American women that occurred before her arrival in Seattle.

Sarah was known for a particular act of kindness towards a Chinese cook before her death in 1887. The Yellers would not take part in the anti Chinese riots that occurred in Seattle in the early 1880’s, she took in a Chinese cook and refused to hand him over to an irate group of white men. This kind of action was not something that would father her husband’s political career. Sara was aware that a great many orphans were part of the Seattle area. She helps found the Seattle Children’s home in 1885 2with the work of the Ladies Relief Society. She died of gastric disease in 1887 at age 65.

"As the news [of her death] swept across Seattle, flags in the city and its harbor were lowered to half-mast as citizens mourned the woman who had given so much to them. Stores and businesses closed their doors out of respect for 'the aged lady' and hundreds poured through the doors of the Yesler mansion and into its north parlor..." (p. 176).
Sources:
Linda Peavey and Ursula Smith, "Sarah Burgert Yesler" in Women in Waiting in the Westward Movement (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1994), 132-178.
Julia Yesler
On June 12, 1855,  a daughter Henry Yesler  was born. Julia (Benson) Intermela (1855-1907) is the child of Susan, the daughter of Curly (Su-quardle) and Henry Yesler. After the death of her mother she was taken in and raised by his wife Sarah Yesler. Julia married Charles L. Intermela in 1880  Elsie was born on January 14, 1892,

The following quote was found in reference to Julia Yesler. . “He was not married to the Indian woman but when his wife came he did not do like many others, drive the girl back to her tribe. He provided for the Indian woman and looked out for her welfare and for that of his daughter by her. He gave the daughter as good an education as circumstances would permit. I had the pleasure of meeting the daughter about two years ago. She is married to a very nice gentleman who is one of the foremost citizens in the city and county where they live. She is a perfect lady and is respected by all who know her. Mrs. Yesler, when she came and found Mr. Yesler the father of the little daughter, took the little one to her home and treated her as her own child" ("A Story of Pioneering,")

SOURCEA Story of Pioneering by Nicholas V. Sheffer (1825-1910)


It should be noted that not everyone approved of the Yesler family. Many people were shocked at their lack of concern for Victorian standards of sexuality. Henry Yesler also had a habit of getting involved in a number of frivolous law suits. He also was known as a bit of a tight wad. He was slow to repay loans made to family members in Ohio , even after he became a millionaire.

Historical Material is available on the Yesler family at http://www.historylink.org Other Material referenced in text.


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Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Eugene V. Debs: Late Victorian Hoosier Hope for American Labor





Debs in 1897
Debs in 1897
Source: See page for author [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
As a child in the public schools of Indiana, we never learned that the father of American Socialism was born and bred in the Hoosier state. Given the political landscape now and then, it is amazing.


Debs A Progressive Victorian Family

Eugene Victor Debs was born November 5, 1855 in Terre Haute Indiana .He is one of the little known Hoosiers of influence in American history. Eugene Debs was a labor organizer and a member of the Socialist party. He ran for the US presidency five times between 1900 and 1920.
His parents were Jean Daniel and Marguerite Betrich Debs. They were both recent immigrants from Colmar Alsace-France. His father was the son of successful textile producers. Marguerite chose to name him in honor of the authors Eugene Sue and Victor Hugo. He was one of 10 children. Eugene Debs was one of six children that lived till adulthood.
His mother was Roman Catholic, but the family was intellectual and not orthodox. The family living room contained busts contained busts of Voltaire and Rousseau. None of the Debs children were baptized. This is all ironic since today see the socialist speech used by Eugene Debs, as being in the Christian socialist tradition, despite his lack of religion.
His parents enrolled him in public school. He left school at age 14. This was a fairly normal experience even for middle-class boy in the Victorian midwest. The Debs family was not destitute; but was only marginally middle class and large. Eugene Debs took a job in December 1871 to help with family bills. Deb began to work on railroad cars first as a painter and then as a cleaner. Debs stayed with the railroad and became a locomotive firemen.
Eugene Debs continued his education by attending a local business college at night. In 1875 he left home to work at a wholesale grocery house.

Union leaders Martin J. Elliott and Eugene V. Debs in prison together .
Union leaders Martin J. Elliott and Eugene V. Debs in prison together .
Source: Wikimedia Public Domain Elliot Family Photos

When Brotherhood was not Enough

Debs held this job for a few years and then returned to working as locomotive firemen. He joined the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen in February 1875. This organization was less of the union; and more of a mutual fraternal support organization. Debs was very involved in this group He served as a delegate at the national convention of the group.
Despite his lack of formal; education Eugene Debs became the editor associate editor of Firemen’s Magazine in 1878 .This was the member’s magazine for this fraternal group. He later became the secretary-treasurer of the local chapter of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen. Debs worked with this group until 1894.
During these years he also served as a political figure on the local level he was the town clerk for Terre Haute for two terms and in 1884 he was elected to the Indiana General assembly as a Democrat. Eugene Debs served one term.
Eugene Debs married 1885. His wife was Kate Metzel. They never had children. The house the Debs shared for many years is still preserved on the campus of Indiana State University in Terre Haute.
At some point Eugene Debs began to see trade brotherhoods; such as the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen as in effective. They turned out to be nothing more than social organization that looked to provide minimal welfare benefits to its members. These groups in failed in gaining living wages for entry-level workers and safe working environments. While, these organizations would provide some financial help in case a worker was injured or died this was not enough.Debs felt the railroads or any employer had moral obligations to also contribute to the welfare and safety of workers.

Pullman strike 1894 lead to Debs going to jail and reading Marx.
Pullman strike 1894 lead to Debs going to jail and reading Marx.
Source: See page for author [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

The Industrial Union Is Born


In 1893 Debs became president of the American Railroad Union. This was one of the first functional industrial unions in the United States. In 1894 the American Railroad Union ran a successful labor action against the Great Northern Railway. The union was able to organize enough different kinds of railroad workers to stop work on the Great Northern Railroad on the for 18 days. The workers won concessions for better pay and safety.
Pullman workers hoping to gain a living wage and safer working conditions followed suit, They began a strike on May 11, 1894. The strike started in Chicago where The American Railroad Union was having its convention. In November the Pullman workers decided to seek worker unity withThe American Railroad Union. This would mean a large diversity of trades involved in railroad work; would support the Pullman workers. They did this by refusing to provide services to trains pulling Pullman cars. Debs himself saw this as a dangerous approach to workers rights. The federal government was supporting management in the Pullman strike.
Many railroad cars carrying federal mail were attached Pullman cars. The union voted to support the Pullman workers by work stoppage. There was a federal injunction issued for all the railroad employees to cease the strike. Debs and other union leaders ignored the federal injunction and were found guilty of interfering with delivery of the US mail. They ended up in jail twice. Debs was in jail the second time in May 1895.
While in jail, Eugene Debs started to look for more complete political underpinning for his labor actions. He developed a larger view of the workers struggle in society. Debs did this by reading Marx. He began to understand that workers rights were tied to race and class struggle.
Even after leaving jail Eugene Debs was not a full-blown socialist. In the election of 1896 he supported the Democratic candidate William Jennings Bryan. Debs embraced socialism in 1897.
Eugene Debs became the founder of the Social Democratic Party later known as the Socialist Party of America. Debs himself became the presidential nominee in 1900 . He ran a disorganized campaign. Eugene Debs lacked the political savy to appeal to national audience. In 1904 Debs found his ability to campaign on the national level had greatly improved, He still was not a widely known political figure in the eyes of the American public.
photo
Debs ran for President in 1920 from prison.
Debs ran for President in 1920 from prison.
Source: Public Domain Political button

Not Anarchist Are Us

Debs was not a revolutionary radical. He did not advocate anarchy. This was a feared out come of the labor movement in general. It was a feared outcome among even socialist workers in the midwest. Haywood was a fellow socialistis name only. Haywood showed his true colors in a speech , berating the use of the normal political means to improve the lot of the worker. Cities like Chicago had already experienced the violence of foreign anarchists. Debs feared losing political and social credibility.
Eugene Debs was an effective organizer in the labor movement, even if he was a marginal political organizer. He founded the International Workers of the World. The IWW was especially appealing to recent immigrant workers on the East Coast. Soon Eugene Debs found his democratically run organization; moving much farther to left then he had anticipated. Yet, there seemed to be a lack of political commitment to established forms a populist politics.
Soon Eugene Debs disassociated himself with the labor organization he had founded. He however; had sympathy of Haywood and his followers. Twenty years after Haywood had gone to prison;Debs pleaded passionately for his release.
Eugene Debs continued his national political career. He ran for president on the ticket of the Socialist party of America in 1908 1912 in 1920. His most successful run was in 1920, where Debs received nearly 1,000,000 votes.
During these years on a practical level Debs supported him by public speaking and writing. He was an associate editor of the magazine appeal to reason which was published in Kansas. This was a popular publication for the educated classes. It had a circulation of several hundred thousand.
Many regarded Debs to be a great public speaker. His speaking style was of an evangelical politician. He sought to convert the political fence sitter to the cause of common man and the possibility of the brotherhood of humanity


Eugene V. Debs delivering his anti-war speech in Canton, Ohio on Jun 16, 1918. He would later be jailed for the speech.
Eugene V. Debs delivering his anti-war speech in Canton, Ohio on Jun 16, 1918. He would later be jailed for the speech.
Source: Public Domain
t

Peace and the Brotherhood of Men

During World War I, Debs spoke passionately against the U.S involvement in the European war. He was committed to pacifism.. As the U.S began to be involved in the war that seemed so disconnected from American interests; Debs spoke out. He gave a famous speech in Canton Ohio. His speech was moving to the audience. Deb speech also gained the attention of the federal government. Debs was tried under the new espionage law. Eugene Debs was convicted of treason. He was sentenced to serve 10 years in prison and lost his citizenship.
During this time in prison in Atlanta, Debs continued to write .Debs actually ran his 1920 political campaign for president for from prison. Officials at the prison and the public at large were so moved by Debs selfless attitude and humility that many doubted he was guilty of treason. There was great public pressure put on the government to release him from prison. President Warren Harding in 1921 released Eugene Debs from prison with a presidential pardon. He was still stripped of his citizenship.
However, in Terre Haute Indiana when he returned on December 28th of that year; Debs was greeted with a heroes welcome. Thousands gathered to welcome him home. Among those celebrating the socialist release, many had conservative political views. They admired Eugene Debs for his commitment to the common man and the overall betterment of his community. Among Debs supporters and friends during his lifetime, were such public figures as Susan B Anthony and James Whitcomb Riley.
During last few years of his life, Debs Eugene Debs was in poor health. His health had declined significantly during his time in prison. He still continued to write and speak publicly when his health allowed it. In 1926 Eugene Debs health took a turn for the worst and he required 24-hour care. He moved from his home in Terre Haute, and was sent to the Lindlahr Sanitarium near Chicago. There he died on October 20th. Eugene Debs’s body was returned to Terre Haute for a burial befitting a national political leader.


Debs in Kansas with the children of The Appeal of Reason staff.
Debs in Kansas with the children of The Appeal of Reason staff.

Debs in The Political Landscape of the Hoosier State: Then and Now

It is amazing that a political figure such as Eugene V Debs sprouted in the cornfields of Indiana. Indiana has an extremely polar political environment even today. At the time Eugene Debs was rising as a significant political figure ,both locally and nationally, Indiana was largely neo-Confederate in of it racial and political attitudes.
The state had not been polarized,at the time of Eugene Debs’s birth. Indiana was solidly a Republican stronghold and a supporter of the Union values.
The southern part of the state had always reflected the national divide of North and South in its' attitude towards race and states rights. The19th century saw some more progressive communities in southren Indiana, such as New Harmony. In general southren Indiana remained at least ambivalent to such conditions as slavery. .
The central part of the state after World War I was largely controlled by the Ku Klux Klan. At one point even state government was controlled by the Klan and KKK political cronies.
The northern part of the state had originally been settled by Germans of sensible protestant beliefs and prosperous German Catholics. There was a prosperous educated English and Irish middle class in more urban areas. Irish Catholics also influenced the political realm in Indiana’s early history. There was enough ethnic diversity, including a prosperous black community,to assure that clan Ku Klux Klan influence did not hold sway for long.The central part of the state was soon commited to moderate Republican values again.
Unfortunately, the very strong union jobs that Eugene V Debs fought so hard for in the Hoosier state attracted a large number of poor uneducated whites from the South. They came to work in its many prosperous factories. The first wave came shortly after newer immigrant groups from Italy and Poland had entered the state in the years just before WWI.
This was during the1920s. The depression did not send these workers back to the South. They established themselves in the outskirts of Indiana’s larger urban communities. They brought with them evangelical Protestantism associated now with conservative politics.
At the time many of these workers identified as Democrats. They were truly Dixiecrats.Southren factory workers had little interest in labor organizations like many of their recent European immigrant cohorts. They benefited from middle-class wages that these unionized industrial jobs provided.
Their religion eventually changed from otherworldly, to politically active to protect their newfound middle-class status. This would eventually ironically mean the descendents of the uneducated southern immigrants to Indiana would be decidedly antiunion.
The second wave of uneducated southern workers, who would stay in Indiana, came after factories were converted to the war effort during World War II. The great need for workers, who possessed very little skills, led many to leave their farms and hollows to become urban factory workers. They firmly establish themselves in small towns with auto related factories and blended with the more established and educated middle-class.
It was not until after the 1970s, and the televangelist emphasis on political activity; that many of these southerners would come to truly define Indiana politics. Hoosier Republicans would defined by the new breed of conservative. All of this lead to Indiana being a state where low wage jobs are all the rage and unions struggle to survive.
Today there is little hope that Indiana will produce any kind of great Republican political leaders such as Sen. Richard Lugar .Indiana is now a right to work state. The future is not very bright for any worker of any political persuasion. This is truly a sad legacy ;for a state that produced progressive political thinkers such as Eugene Debs.
Quote on Eugene Debs by unknown associate
"That old man with the burning eyes actually believes that there can be such a thing as the brotherhood of man. And that's not the funniest part of it. As long as he's around I believe it myself."



Eugene Debs: A Political Haratio Algers Story

As a product of the middle and late Victorian era, Eugene V. Debs was not unlike many of his capitalist male counterparts in background.It is safe to view this period in American social history as one of middle class conservatism. Yet, any brief reading of Victorian vanity biographies spop will reveal the similarity of Debs to other men of the period. These me were either were from rural commuties or second generation immigrants. All of them sought radical change in their personal life. As a group a number of Amercian men born in the middle Victorian era, ultimately rejected the more conventional paths of living.
Many of these men married outside their ethnic and religious groups. Manyjoined uniquely American religions, like Mormonism, Unitarianism, or Spiritualism. Many future business and political leader of the day had the benefit of some public education.Many of these leaders educated themselves in business or the humanities. Men in the later Victorian era, moved to new cities the on western frontier . They intentionally sought to engage in trades that were very different from their fathers and grandfathers. The second half of the nineteenth century ;was the hayday of the self made in business, politics , and religion.

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Sunday, October 5, 2014

Booth Tarkington And The Victorian Upper Middle Class in the Midwest



English: American author Booth Tarkington, 3/4...
English: American author Booth Tarkington, 3/4 length portrait, standing, facing right; holding cigarette; with right hand in coat pocket. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)





Booth Tarkington documented middle and upper middle class life in its ideal during the late Victorian era .He documented the rise of the white Anglo-Saxon middle class in middle America. Tarkington also wrote about great social disruption particular group of Americans this experienced as the turn-of-the-century turned into the jazz age. His view of American life was rose colored, as he documented the comforts of the well-established middle-class. Old money struggled to survive in a world where tycoons were made money overnight. New money from those without good Virginian or New England pedigrees ,changed and livened up the stoic Victorian middle-class.
Cover of "The Magnificent Ambersons (Barn...
Cover via Amazon

Booth Tarkington was a product of the very society  he wrote about. Born into a prosperous middle-class family he was the son of John S Tarkington and Elizabeth Booth Tarkington.  He came into the world Newton Booth Tarkington 29 July 1869 in Indianapolis, Indiana He had such famous relations as Newton Booth then governor of California for which he was named..

His father John S Tarkington was a local attorney and sometimes judge. Tarkington had a rather pleasant and unremarkable Victorian upbringing. Booth Tarkington attended Purdue University for 10 years for two years, but his father wishing to have it wishing him to have an Ivy League education sent into Princeton. Tarkington was supposed to graduate in 1893 but he did not have enough credits , Booth Tarkington did however receive honorary degrees in 1899 and in 1918 from Princeton. University was a very important part f Booth Tarkington’s life because here he got a taste for writing. Tarkington was the editor of the Nassau Literary Magazine and founder of the Princeton Triangle Club. He was also the voted the most popular man on campus, however having a successful social life did not translate into academic degree for him.

Julia; frontispiece of a 1922 New York publica...
Julia; frontispiece of a 1922 New York publication of Gentle Julia, by Booth Tarkington (Photo credit: Wikipedia)


Booth Tarkington returned home in 1893 having been written having been bitten by the writers bug. He made his living in the arts as a sketch artist  and novelist. Tarkington’s early work was subject to many rejections but his persistence in writing but his passion for writing would eventually pay off. His streak of bad t luck finally broke when in1899 story that he had written called The Gentleman From Indiana became a bestseller. This was soon followed by another literary success a historical romance Monsieur Beaucaire , this book would go on to become a movie starring Rudolph Valentino. Unfortunately during this time., Tarkington was not as successful in his personal life as he was his professional life he married Laurel Fletcher in 1902 and they had one child daughter who died in infancy. The couple was not well match from the beginning and they divorced in 1911.  This was a very scandalous at the time for a public figure.

He continued to write some of the most popular novels of the era such as an Two Vanrevels and Mary's Monsieur Beaucaire . Today Booth Tarkington is best remembered for his trilogy known as Growth which tracks the Amberson family from right after the Civil War to their social decline at the turn of the century. The second book in this trilogy the Magnificent Ambersons was a especially popular after was adapted for the screen by Orson Welles 1942. This novel continues to show up on lists of popular modern novels.

Booth Tarkington also wanted to document the mischievous youth of middle America during the late Victorian era similar to the way Mark Twain did. He wrote three pieces Penrod (1914 )Penrod and Sam (1916) in Penrod Jasber. (1929). Booth Tarkington was known to be a doting uncle and some of these tales they be based on some of his own childhood experiences and those of his nephews witchy with whom he kept a lifetime of correspondence several nephews went on to publish a collection of the letters he had sent them: Your Amiable Uncle; Letters to His Nephews by Booth Tarkington (1949). 

Front cover for Penrod by Booth Tarkington.
Front cover for Penrod by Booth Tarkington. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)









He was also involved heavily in the Indianapolis community in Indianapolis having been a trustee for the John Heron art school in the Indianapolis Museum of Art. Tarkington married again Susanah Kiefer Robinson, and they would have no children..she outlived him bya couple of decades. The Tarkington’s were sought after couple of the day and hobnobbed with the upper-class spending many vacations after so need at their private resort in Kennebunkport in kidney main. He enjoyed an active writing career up until his death in 1946..

 He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1919 for his novel The Magnificent Ambersons (1918) and 1922 forAlice Adams (1921),Alice  Adams which was later made into a movie starring Katharine Hepburn. He was considered one of the best living writers of his time. Tarkington died on May 19, 1946. His last novel was published in 1947 Image of Josephine .

   Booth Tarkington is buried in Crown Hill Cemetery Marion County Indiana. It is said that his most famous novel The Magnificent Ambersons was based upon the families that lived in Woodruff Pl., Indiana at the turn-of-the-century.

Booth Tarkington’s works are in direct opposite in some ways to the poetry of James Whitcomb Riley. James Whitcomb Riley wrote about the many German, Irish, and other early immigrants who settled Indiana in the mid-19th century and were only just beginning to find stability in the Hoosier heartland. Only a generation away from James Whitcomb Riley, with Tarkington Booth Tarkington focused his work on the Americans who came to Indiana when it was a fit place to have a civilized life. The children of both these became part of the middle-class of clerks and farmers that made Indiana comfortable place to raise children and pursue a livelihood. Both the Tarkington and James Whitcomb Riley showed that the Hoosier frontier had  been transformed into a place of culture.


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