The Hemenway Hallmark


Augustus Hemenway's death in 1876 marked an important end and a significant beginning in the history of Boston; a city with citizenry who, even by that date, had become quite accustomed to historic milestones. Hemenway's death signaled the end of an era for "merchant princes." He was among the last of the greats in a long line of late eighteenth-century innovators who had seized upon the geographic advantage of their location and created a shipping trade between Boston and the rest of the world never again equaled in American maritime history. So successful were these ventures that men like Hemenway, who had to overcome his tenuous beginnings, could realize considerable wealth and social prestige early in adult life. In Boston of his day, these accomplishments entitled him to an unquestioned place among that well-documented tradition of nineteenth-century Brahmins; the members of the elite, familial dynasties of Beacon Hill. Hemenway's fortune was already secure when he met and, in 1840, married Mary Tileston, the daughter of a wealthy New york businessman. Yet, while he was able to encourage his wife, and eventually their children, to enjoy the luxuries which his labors had produced, he was personally driven by a puritanical over zealousness for work. This unfortunate compulsion resulted in a nervous break-down which lasted over twelve years and despite a short rally, eventually led to his death. He died on his sugar plantation in Cuba leaving his widow and their children financially secure in Boston.

But if the acquisition of a great fortune had been the benchmark sought by Augustus Hemenway, Sr., the philanthropic use of that great fortune became the Hemenway family hallmark, primarily because of his wife and only son. Of particular note in this study is that a large part of that philanthropy was directed toward the encouragement of physical education in Massachusett's public and private schools and in four of her colleges.

In the first decade following his father's death, Augustus Hemenway, Jr. financed the construction of gymnasiums at Harvard University (1878) and Groton School (1884). The Harvard Gymnasium quickly became the prototype for excellence in college gymnasium construction throughout the United States and, under the directorship of Dudley Allen Sargent, the University's physical education program grew to almost unrivaled prominance in the country. In the next decade, Mrs. Augustus Hemenway, Sr. (Mary Hemenway) financially ensured the teaching of Swedish gymnastics in the Boston Public Schools through two in-service programs led by Baron Nils Posse (1888), underwrote the famous Boston Conference of 1889, and in that same year, funded the start of the Boston Normal School of Gymnastics (BNSG). Moreover, her educational philanthropies did not cease with her death in 1894. By placing her property in trust for fifteen years, she was able to aid in the successful transfer and merger of BNSG with Wellesley College's department of hygiene and physical education under the directorship of Amy Morris Homans, her former secretary. This same trust partially assured the construction of a handsome, new gymnasium (1909) on the Wellesley College campus which continues to serve the students today. Finally, in the twenty-first year after the death of Augustus Hemenway, Sr., his only daughter-in-law, Harriet Lawrence Hemenway, donated the necessary monies to finance the construction of yet another gymnasium. This one, on the Radcliffe College campus (1898), served as an architectural model for the group of buildings which followed it and today graces the center of that Cambridge Campus. Thus, in a span of just over two decades, the Hemenway family donated four gymnasiums and financed physical education programs in three different educational arenas.

Unfortunately, only partial credit has been given to the Hemenway's for their generosity to American physical education to date. No doubt part of this failure has been due to the Hemenway style of giving; it was always done efficiently and quietly, never for public acclaim. Nevertheless, when one recalls the accomplishments of Dudley Sargent at Harvard University, Amy Morris Homans at the Boston Normal School of Gymnastics, and later at Wellesley College, and the enthusiastic endorsement of physical education at Radcliffe College and Groton School under the presidencies of Elizabeth Agassiz and Endicott Peabody, one cannot ignore the Hemenway family role. Nor can we ignore the extent of their contribution when we recount the thousands of Boston school children who have received physical education instruction since 1888 and the national impact on the growth of physical education because of the Boston Conference of 1889. Throughout these recollections it becomes increasingly clear that Hemenway family support played a crucial role in the success of an educational movement which, at that moment in history, sorely needed their patronage.

CHRIS KENT,  Henry Ford Community College



SOME
MERCHANTS AND SEA CAPTAINS
OF OLD BOSTON

BEING A COLLECTION OF SKETCHES OF
NOTABLE MEN AND MERCANTILE HOUSES
PROMINENT DURING THE EARLY HALF
OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY
IN THE
COMMERCE AND SHIPPING
OF BOSTON

COPYRIGHT 1918
BY THE STATE STREET TRUST COMPANY

 

AUGUSTUS HEMENWAY & CO.  

One of the most influential merchants of Boston.

He was chiefly interested in the Valparaiso, Chile trade.
 

Augustus Hemenway was one of the most influential merchants of Boston. He was born in Salem in 1805, and like many boys of that period he was obliged to go to work when he was very young. His first position was as clerk in a small dry-goods store in Charles­town, and later he was employed by Benjamin Bangs & Co., going out as supercargo in their vessels. When he was fifteen years old, it is recorded, he was earning $60 a year and his board. With the Bangs firm he began trading for himself in a small way with the seacoast towns in Maine, then he branched out to the West Indies, and by 1836 he was in business for himself under the firm name of A. Hemen­way & Co. He owned eight large ships, which he built for his own business, under his own orders, and which plied to and from Val­paraiso, where he had his own warehouse and stores. The names of these vessels were "City of Valparaiso," "City of Santiago," "Inde­pendence," "Magellan," "San Carlos," "Prospero," "Sunbeam," and "Quintero." He also owned the entire cargoes which consisted of what­ever American products he considered would be salable on the west coast of South America, -- soap, candles, kerosene, refined sugar, boots, shoes, etc.; lathes, shovels, picks, and other tools and machines, woollen and cotton cloth; sewing-machines, organs, pianos, furniture, and other manufactures. For the homeward voyages the ships were loaded with copper ore, nitrate of soda, wool, hides, goatskins, etc. As all the cargo belonged to him, he never had to advertise for freight.

One of his captains said that when his crew was taken on board in Boston, one of them was very drunk and noisy, whereupon the mate told him to stop his noise and go below. The man made some insulting reply, whereupon the mate seized a belaying pin, struck him a heavy blow on the head which brought the blood over his face, and knocked him senseless to the deck. a lady passenger, who saw it, was horrified at the sight, and hastened to the cabin. a few days later, when the ship had sailed, this lady came on deck and observ­ing the man who had been belabored, at the wheel, steering the ship, exclaimed, "Oh, my good man, how is your head?" The man glanced at the compass and replied absent-mindedly to the puzzled lady, "East-north-east-half-east, Madam." 

Another captain brought home from Valparaiso a French ship­master whose vessel had been sold. He had with his baggage a quantity of fine French brandy. On the last day of the discharge of the cargo the Frenchman invited the custom-house officer on hoard to take a glass of this brandy, which the officer said was the finest he had ever tasted. The Frenchman asked if he would consider it a good thing to have in the house, and asked for a memorandum of his residence. Soon after that a man came from the cabin with a half-dozen bottles in a basket and started for the shore. Of course, the officer could not see goods taken ashore until the duty was paid, so he looked the other way. When he went home that night he was surprised and disappointed at not finding the brandy there and dis­covered a few days later that the address given to the man with the basket was that of one of the Frenchman's friends, and not his own address. The custom-house official could not say anything about the incident without showing his neglect of duty in allowing the brandy to be landed.

Mr. Hemenway's quiet manner of managing his affairs was appre­ciated by every one. One day the stevedores' engine, at work on the wharf, threw off a mass of soot which was blown into the office windows, covering the desks and papers. Mr. Hemenway spoke to the wharfinger about it, who must have been a punster, for he replied, "I am very sorry; we are always trying to suit you," and then proceeded with his work.

Besides his Valparaiso business Augustus Hemenway owned an entire township in Maine, where he procured pine-trees, floating the logs down to his own saw-mill at Machias. Here they were cut into boards and loaded on his schooners for Cuba, where he owned a large plantation and sugar-mill, in which he took a great interest. One winter evening, while on his way from Sagua to the St. George estate, Mr. Hemenway was captured by insurgents and held for ransom. The manager of the estate, who was with him, was very much terrified, but Mr. Hemenway showed no fear whatever and passed a good part of the night sitting on a log, smoking cigars, and endeavoring to beat down the exorbitant demands made for his ransom, in which he was largely successful. At daybreak he sent his manager, Mr. Bartlett, to the bank, in Sagua, for the necessary funds, paid his ransom, then went quietly on his way. Absolute fearlessness was one of his strongest characteristics. After this adventure, how­ever, he made it a point to go by train from Sagua to the estate.

Mr. Hemenway was an industrious, quiet, and unassuming gentle­man, and was a most successful merchant. He was so conscientious about his business that he was seldom willing to leave details to others. sometimes even superintending the loading of his vessels. He married Mary Tileston, the daughter of Thomas Tileston of New York, who was one of the foremost merchants of that city From 1820 until his death in the late sixties.

There was another Hemenway in the family who was a noted captain, and it was said of him that he was such a good pilot that he could "take a ship to the White Mountains, gather a freight of cool air and return on time with his eyes shut."