OUR ALMOST FORGOTTEN HERO HARVEY G. EASTMAN Founder of Eastman Business College Elizabeth I. Carter
"He hit Poughkeepsie like an exploding meteorite!" "He had flashing blue eyes and the head of a genius." "He literally gave his life for his adopted city." These were some of the comments made immediately after the death of one of Poughkeepsie's most colorful and illustrious citizens in July, 1878, just one hundred years ago. They paint in a very few words a portrait of a man who has challenged every "painter of history" since his time. One artist might slap together a caricature of a man arrayed in a suit of bright colors, a high white beaver hat with a six-inch brim, riding around Poughkeepsie in his white barouche drawn by four horses (all with white feet). Another more truthful artist might portray an ambitious, energetic, dynamic gentleman whose very profile bespoke all of these qualities. But it would take an artist of unusual perception, ability and understanding to paint the ultimate portrait, one which would show the true character and personality of "H.G." as he came to be known. It would have to picture him in three dimensions, for underneath his showman-promotor exterior were hidden more subtle qualities - generosity, love of his city and devotion to the youth of the country. It is hard to start the life story of such a man at the usual beginning, but how else can we start? Harvey Gridley Eastman was born in Marshall, Oneida County, New York on October 16, 1832. His ancestors had come from England to Massachusetts in 1638, and later generations had migrated to central New York. Harvey's father was a farmer and most of the boy's time was spent helping with the farm work. He could "read, write and cipher" but his schooling was intermittent at best. At nineteen he began working for his uncle, George Washington Eastman, who operated a school in Rochester where young men could learn penmanship and arithmetic. (Harvey's younger cousin, George, started as a teller in a Rochester Bank and later founded the famous Eastman Kodak Company.) After a disagreement with his uncle, Harvey started a school of his own in Oswego and soon moved on to set up one in St. Louis, Mo. It was at this point that his interests began to widen beyond the operation of a "business school" for he started to invite renowned speakers on the anti-slavery issue to lecture to his students and to all who wished to join them. This led very quickly to a head-on clash with the St. Louis authorities and he had to leave. He had heard favorably about a town on the Hudson River, stratigically located halfway between New York and Albany and noted as an educational center. (It had some 50 private schools of all sizes.) It was a bustling industrial and commercial center and although he had never set foot in it, Eastman chose it for the location of his 66
