Peabody, George

Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)

George (1795-1869), an American merchant. He was born at Danvers, Massachusetts. His parents were poor and were able to afford him only a common school education. He became a grocer's clerk at the age of eleven. At the age of seventeen he went to Georgetown, D. C., to act as a clerk in the grocery store of an uncle. Later he became engaged in the wholesale dry goods business at Baltimore. His partner was a man of wealth. Peabody had the actual management of the business. He traveled for years as a salesman in New York , Pennsylvania, and Virginia. He built up a large business, becoming both influential and wealthy. Later, in purchasing goods for his firm, he made several trips to London. He sold out his dry goods business and opened a banking house in London under the firm name of George Peabody & Co. Peabody amassed a fortune, which he devoted largely to charitable purposes. He gave $200,000 to his native town of Danvers to found a free library and lecture course. The name of the town was changed to Peabody in his honor. To Baltimore, the city in which the foundation of his fortune was laid, he gave $1,400,000 to found an academy of music and art, in connection with which a free library and an art gallery should be maintained. He presented Yale $150,000 for a museum of natural history. He gave Harvard a similar sum for a museum of archaelogy and ethnology. Salem, Massachusetts, received $140,000 for the Peabody Academy of Science. He donated a sum of money, now known as the London Peabody Fund, amounting in all to $2,500,000, to be expended in the erection of model tenement buildings for the poor of London. These buildings are leased at a nominal rent and have been the models for other efforts of the kind. Among minor gifts may be mentioned $13,000 to Newburyport for a beautiful library; $10,000 to Dr. Kane to aid in the search for Sir John Franklin's body; and $50,000 to aid the exhibit of the United States at the London World's Fair. One of Peabody's last gifts was the princely sum of $3,500,000 for the encouragement of education in the Southern States. This fund has been administered by a body of fifteen trustees. The plan of the board has been to strengthen existing institutions rather than to establish schools. A large number of grants, varying from $300 to $1,000 a year, have been made to worthy schools. A number of scholarships for the aid of needy students have been established. Up to 1905 about $3,000,000 had been paid out. The history of the fund in detail may be found in the United States Commissioner of Education's report for 1898. Mr. Peabody's gifts amounted in all to about $9,000,000. At his death, which occurred in London, his remains were honored by public service in Westminster Abbey . They were sent to the United States by the British ship of war Monarch. He was buried with fitting public ceremonies at his native town of Danvers, now Peabody.