FRIDAY | SEPTEMBER 19, 2003
News Editor / Cory Schneider / cschneider@studlife.com
STUDENT LIFE | NEWS
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From the Beginning a Great Work: Washington University in St. Louis 1853-2003 In her book, “From the Beginning a Great Work: Washington University in St. Louis 1853-2003,” Candace O’Connor relates the history of the University from William Greenleaf Eliot to Mark. S. Wrighton. The following is an excerpt from her chapter on Eliot’s life and accomplishments.
later, then dedicated a magnificent new sanctuary at 9th and Olive in 1851. At the same time, Eliot was becoming a civic leader: member, then president, of the St. Louis School Board; founder of the Academy of Sciences of St. Louis; still later a temperance advocate, women’s suffrage supporter, and staunch foe of legalized prostitution. On an 1843 visit to St. Louis, novelist Charles Dickens commented: “The Unitarian Church is represented in this remote place...by a gentleman of great worth and excellence.”
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uring the 1849 cholera epidemic that killed thousands of St. Louisans, Eliot demonstrated his worth in his heroic efforts to help the stricken. One week, he was gone day and night, “making himself physician, nurse, pastor, friend, all in one,” recalled By Candace O’Connor Clarke. “When Sunday came, he went into the pulpit and spoke with no mental preparation, feeling that the care of the sick and dying was more important than the sermon. At the close of the service, he remarked to his mother, ‘You see, mother, n November 1834, after a long steamwhat poor stuff they are willing to take boat journey, Rev. William Greenleaf from me.’ She answered, ‘They know where Eliot,Jr., landed in St. Louis, eager to you have been all the week.’” establish a Unitarian presence in the Though he abhorred slavery himself, untamed West. It was a “wild, unpromisEliot wished to help avert confl ict by steering adventure,” he admitted later, and at ing a moderate political course that favored 22 he was “young, inexperienced.” Yet, gradual emancipation. Some of his own he added, “I never for a moment had a church members left when he preached doubt upon the subject! It never entered against slavery; some northerners critimy head that failure was possible!....My cized him for not going far enough. But faith in the power of Christian truth was Eliot rejected the interference of people such that I felt [a] “too distant from the scene of action to sense of gaining know what ought to be done.” Rather, he [a] foothold.” said, “the two texts which reformers need Already Eliot most are these — ’In patience possess your had the towering souls’; and ‘Let your moderation be known moral strength to all men.’” Once the Civil War broke out, that would inhowever, he became an ardent Union supspire people with porter and emancipationist. admiration, even In a controversial 1849 sermon, he had awe, for all the declared he would never return a fugitive rest of his life. slave to his master. So in 1863, when his As Rev. James family’s new servant, Archer Alexander, Freeman Clarke, proved to be a fugitive slave, Eliot’s course a classmate and was clear. He protected Alexander, even friend, remarked in 1839: “One feels rescued him when slave-catchers tried to rebuked in his presence. William Eliot steal him back. After the war, he employed carries with him this dignity, so that no Alexander, became his friend, and in 1885 one would like to trifle with him.” Clarke wrote a moving biography, The Story of Aralso noted Eliot’s playful smile, his lumicher Alexander. Eventually, he gave a photo nous eyes, his remarkable sweetness. “He of Alexander to sculptor Thomas Ball, who never offends, because he is calm, quiet, Rev. William Greenleaf Eliot, Jr. (1811-1887). used it in shaping the face of the newly kindly….His whole body is full of light.” Eliot was elected to the prestigious post of secretary of the freed slave in his Freedom’s Memorial Eliot was born in New Bedford, MasAmerican Unitarian Association–but he turned it down. “Duty statue, still on display in Washington, D.C. sachusetts, the third child of William was [the] deciding motive,” he wrote, “and to say truth, I have In addition, Eliot published collections Greenleaf Eliot, Sr., and Margaret Dawes of sermons, notably his Discipline of Eliot. His family, prominent in New felt the sacrifice very deeply.” In 1857, he did accept an honorSorrow, which he wrote after the sudden, England religious and political circles, ary doctorate from his alma mater, Harvard Divinity School, in tragic death of his oldest daughter, Mary believed in living principled lives. His recognition of his role as co-founder of Washington University. Rhodes Eliot, in 1855. In all, the Eliots had great-grandfather, Rev. Andrew Eliot, was 14 children and only five lived to adultminister for more than three decades at hood, but the loss of 16-year-old Mary was a particularly stunning Boston’s Old North Church. Offered the presidency of Harvard Colblow. Two months later, he wrote in his journal: “I almost craze lege in 1773, he refused, feeling honor-bound to remain true to his myself with work, yet dear Mary is never away from my mind.” His vocation. surviving children were four boys — Thomas Lamb, Henry Ware, Eliot’s own father was a merchant and ship owner, ruined by shipChristopher Rhodes, Edward Cranch — and one girl, Rose Greenleaf. ping restrictions imposed by the War of 1812. He moved his family to All the boys were graduates of Washington Washington, D.C., where he became chief examiner in the Post Office. University; Rose was an alumna of Mary Though not poor, the family was no longer wealthy; young William Institute. graduated from Columbian College (later George Washington UniverHis extended family also had consity) in 1826, then worked for a year in the post office. There, parcels nections to the University. In 1860, his from St. Louis caught his eye, and he decided that, if he should ever mother, “desiring to associate her memory go west, St. Louis would be his home. with the enjoyment and happiness of the In 1831, he entered Harvard Divinity School, where he read Geryoung,” donated $1,000 to the Mary Instiman philosophers, visited the needy, and preached his fi rst sermon, tute on condition that the second Friday in entitled “Philanthropy.” He honed his religious belief — a form of May be set aside forever as a holiday; it is Christianity taught by William Ellery Channing, the founder of still celebrated — called “Grandmother’s Unitarianism — that included devotion to God and Christ, the Bible, Day.” His brother Thomas, an attorney and the practice of morality, and religious Congressman, consulted with Eliot on sevfreedom. He decided to follow a “practical” eral University tax issues. After the Civil faith, dedicating himself to his flock and War, William Greenleaf Eliot endowed a his community — and taxing his own frail scholarship to honor another brother, constitution in the process. “I believe the Frank Andrew Eliot, who was killed in galpath of duty,” he said, ”…soonest leads to lant action at the battle of Chancellorsville. the love and perception of truth.” Where to begin that journey? In 1833, he wrote to Clarke, who had settled in Louucceeding generations of Eliots have played a role in University isville: “I hear that at St. Louis a parish is life. getting together; is it true, and what about Celebrated poet and playwright Thomas Stearns (T.S.) Eliot it?” By spring 1834, he wrote again, having was the youngest child of Henry Ware and Charlotte Stearns Eliot. He made up his mind: “Let them know in some attended the Academy (by then called Smith Academy) where he was way that a youngster is ready to come there an outstanding student; in 1905, at age 16, he left St. Louis for Boston to live, to spend his life among them if and eventually became a British citizen. In 1933, he lectured in Grathey will provide food and lodging — for ham Chapel on Shakespearean criticism, then in 1953, he returned if I come, I come to remain, and to lay my during the University’s centennial to receive an honorary degree and ashes in the valley of the Mississippi.” give a lecture, “American Literature and the American Language,” in Coincidentally, in June 1834, Christowhich he mentioned William Greenleaf Eliot: pher Rhodes traveled to Boston in search “I never knew my grandfather; he died a year before my birth. But of a Unitarian missionary for St. Louis. I was broughtup to be very much aware of him: so much so, that as During a meeting with Rev. Henry Ware, Jr., a child I thought of him as still head of the family….The standard a Harvard Divinity School faculty member, he heard that Eliot was of conduct was that which mygrandfather had set; our moral judgalready hoping to make St. Louis his home. The two met and Rhodes ments, our decisions between duty and self-indulgence, were taken instantly engaged Eliot for a year’s trial period — a decision he would as if, like Moses, he had brought down tablets of the Law, any devianever have the smallest reason to regret. tion from which would be sinful. Not the least of these laws…was When Eliot arrived, Rhodes met him and introduced him to James the Law of Public Service: it is no doubt owing to the impress of this Smith, who became a second friend law upon my infant mind that, like other and ally. From that kernel of supmembers of my family, I have felt…an port, Eliot worked to build a conuncomfortable and very inconvenient gregation amid a heavily Catholic obligation to serve upon committees.” community. “It would have been no Another grandchild was William matter of surprise if we had utterly Greenleaf Eliot, Jr., A.B. ’88, honorary failed,” he later wrote. “….No one LL.D. ’32, who married an early woman expected anything else. With a Boy graduate, Minna Sessinghaus, A.B. for a Pastor…and no one man of ’90, summa cum laude. Like his father wealth among us, numbering in all — Thomas Lamb — Eliot, Jr. became a but 15 or 20 persons, men and womUnitarian minister in Portland, Oregon; en…what wonder if we had…ceased in 1932 he returned to give the Univerbefore we had begun!” sity’s 75th anniversary Commencement address. In it he mentioned that, when oon he had help from his new he was born, his father’s 1862 class had wife, Abby Adams Cranch, given him a silver cup inscribed with whom he married in 1837. She his future graduation date — indicating, was his fi rst cousin, daughter of a he said, “that I was born an alumnus of Washington, D.C. judge, and only 20 Washington University!” Most recently, years old when she left her comfortan Eliot great-great-great grandson has able home for St. Louis. “Although I matriculated: Eliot Isaac Sinclair of Mesa, ALL PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF WU ARCHIVES had been told much about the smoke Arizona, Class of 2004. Beaumont farmhouse. From 1861-68, William Greenleaf Eliot and and mud, I found it even worse than his family lived near Washington, Beaumont, and Locust, in an old I imagined,” she reminisced in 1895. farmhouse formerly owned by his friend, physician William Beau“No pavement and a very dusty This excerpt is “From the Beginning a mont. Camp Jackson was only a half-mile away, and during the 1861 road…Policemen few and very bad Great Work: Washington University in St. auction, rifle bullets whizzed past Eliot’s fence. Afterwards, Eliot built a boys.” Louis 1853-2003,” by Candace O’Connor, home, also on the Beaumont property, at 2660 Washington. In 1837, his Church of the Mescopyright Washington University in St. siah built its fi rst sanctuary at 4th Louis 2003. This excert is a fi rst in a and Pine, enlarged it only five years monthly series.
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Abby Adams Cranch Eliot, wife of William Greenleaf Eliot
Four of William Greenleaf Eliot’s sons graduated from Washington University:
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“He never offends, because he is calm, quiet, kindly... His whole body is full of light.”
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“Although I had been told much about the smoke and mud, I found it even worse than i imagined... No pavement and a very dusty road... Policemen few and very bad boys.”
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“I never knew my grandfather; he died a year before my birth. But I was brought up to be very much aware of him.”
Thomas Lamb Eliot (1841-1936) An 1865 Harvard Divinity School graduate who taught Latin and Greek briefly at Smith Academy, Eliot, A.B. ‘62, A.M. ‘66, moved to Portland, Oregon, in 1867 to become pastor of the First Unitarian Church, as well as a civic leader and president of the board of Reed College. He received an honorary LL.D. from Washington University in 1912.
Henry Eliot (1843-1919) Eliot, A.B. ‘63, stayed on in St. Louis, where he became chairman of the board of the Hydraulic Brick Company, president of the Academy of Science, and a trustee of the Missouri Botanical Garden. He was a member of the University’s Board of Directors from 1877-1919.
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Christopher Rhodes Eliot (1856-1945) After teaching for a year in the Academic Department, Eliot, A.B. ‘76, A.M. ‘81, graduated from Harvard Divinity School. A distinguished churchman and educator, he served eastern pastorates, primarily Bulfinch Place Church in Boston. He received an honorary LL.D. from Washington University in 1925.
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Edward Cranch Eliot (1858-1928) A lawyer who stayed in St. Louis, Eliot, A.B. ‘78, LL.B.’80, A.M. ‘81, specialized in international law and was a lecturer in the University’s law school from 1887 to 1923. In 1898, he served as president of the American Bar Association and president of the St. Louis school board.