John Murray Forbes
John Murray Forbes | |
|---|---|
 Crayon portrait bySeth Wells Cheney,c. 1851 | |
| Born | February 23, 1813 Bordeaux,France |
| Died | October 12, 1898(aged 85) |
| Education | Phillips Academy Round Hill School |
| Occupation(s) | Railroad magnate, merchant, financier |
| Spouse | Sarah Hathaway |
| Children | 6, includingWilliam,John |
| Relatives | Robert Bennet Forbes(brother) Francis B. Forbes(cousin) John Murray Forbes(uncle) Thomas H. Perkins(uncle) |
| Signature | |
 | |
John Murray Forbes(February 23, 1813 – October 12, 1898) was an American railroadmagnate,merchant,philanthropist andabolitionist.He was president of both theMichigan Central railroadand theChicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroadin the 1850s. He kept doing business withRussell & Company.[1]
Early life
[edit]Forbes was born on February 23, 1813, inBordeaux,France.[1]His father, Ralph Bennett Forbes, was a member of theForbes family,descended from Scottish immigrants who attempted unsuccessfully to start a trade from Bordeaux.[1]His mother, Margaret Perkins, was a member of theBoston BrahminPerkins family merchant dynasty involved in the China trade. Among his siblings, his older brother wasRobert Bennet Forbes,sea captainandChinamerchant.[2]
His paternal uncle wasJohn Murray Forbes,lawyer anddiplomat,and his maternal uncle was merchantThomas Handasyd Perkins.Among his cousins was the botanistFrancis Blackwell Forbes.[2]
In 1814, his parents moved back to theCaptain Robert Bennet Forbes HouseinMilton, Massachusetts.Forbes attended school atPhillips AcademyinAndover, Massachusetts,then atRound Hill SchoolinNorthampton, Massachusetts,from 1823 to 1828.
Career
[edit]Forbes was one of three brothers sent by their uncle toCanton, China,and achieved some financial success during a short time spent trading opium in Canton. However, unlike his brotherRobert,who devoted himself to the China trade, Forbes returned toBostonand became an early railroad investor and landowner.
As withJay GouldandE. H. Harriman,Forbes was an important figure in the building of America's railroad system. From March 28, 1846, through 1855, he was president ofMichigan Central Railroad,and he was a director and president of theChicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad,he helped with the growth of the American Middle West.[3]In addition, he foundedJ.M. Forbes & Co.,an investment firm in Boston in 1838.[1]
In 1860, he was an elector forAbraham Lincoln.He served as the Chairman of theRepublican National Committeeduring the administration of PresidentAbraham Lincoln.[4]Staunchly pro-Union, he is given credit for founding the New EnglandLoyal Publication Societyin early 1863 (Smith 1948).[5]After theCivil War,Forbes was elected as a 3rd Class (honorary) Companion of theMilitary Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States.[2]
Forbes was a delegate to the Republican conventions of 1876, 1880 and 1884, he eventually became displeased with the Republican party and worked successfully to get DemocratGrover Clevelandelected president.
Philanthropy
[edit]He supplied money and weapons to New Englanders to fight slavery inKansasand in 1859 entertainedJohn Brown.
Forbes's many philanthropic activities included the re-establishment ofMilton Academy,a preparatory school south ofBoston, Massachusettsin 1884.[6]
Personal life
[edit]
Forbes married Sarah Swain Hathaway (1813–1900). They resided in Milton, Massachusetts, and summered onNaushon IslandinDukes County, Massachusetts.[4]They had two sons and four daughters:[7]
- Ellen Randolph Forbes (1838–1860).[7]
- Alice Hathaway Forbes (1838–1917), who married Edward Montague Cary (1828–1888) in 1875.[7]
- William Hathaway Forbes(1840–1897), who married Edith Emerson (1841–1929), the daughter of poetRalph Waldo Emerson.[8]William became the first president of theAmerican Telephone and Telegraph Companyand father ofWilliam Cameron Forbes.[9]
- Mary Hathaway Forbes (1844–1916), who marriedHenry Sturgis Russell(1838–1905) in 1863.[7]
- John Malcolm Forbes(1847–1904), theyachtsmanandhorsemanwho married Sarah Coffin Jones (1852–1891) in 1873.[7]
- Sarah Forbes (1853–1917), who married William Hastings Hughes (1833–1909) in 1887.[4]
Forbes died ofpneumoniaon October 12, 1898, in Milton, Massachusetts.[4]
Descendants
[edit]His cousinFrancis Blackwell Forbes(1839–1908) is the great-grandfather of 2004 U.S.Democraticpresidential candidateJohn Forbes Kerry.His 4x great-grandson isJonathan Meath,a renownedEmmy award-winningtelevision producer.[10]
Legacy
[edit]In the September 1899 issue ofAtlanticmagazine,Edward Waldo Emerson(Ralph Waldo Emerson's son), published Forbes' biography. The Emerson and Forbes families were close as Forbes' son,William,married Ralph's daughter, Edith Emerson. InLetters and Social Aims,Ralph Waldo Emersonwrote of Forbes:
"Never was such force, good meaning, good sense, good action, combined with such domestic lovely behavior, such modesty and persistent preference for others. Wherever he moved he was the benefactor... How little this man suspects, with his sympathy for men and his respect for lettered and scientific people, that he is not likely, in any company, to meet a man superior to himself," and "I think this is a good country that can bear such a creature as he."[11]
The small community ofForbes, Missouri,is named for him.[12]
References
[edit]- ^abcd"History of J.M. Forbes & Co".J.M. Forbes & Co.RetrievedMarch 24,2022.
- ^abcSmith, George Winston. "Broadsides for Freedom: Civil War Propaganda in New England."The New England Quarterly,Vol. 21, No. 3. (Sep., 1948), pp. 291–312.
- ^Pearson, Henry.An American Railroad Builder: John Murray Forbes,Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1911.
- ^abcd"John Murray Forbes Is Dead. Wealthy New Englander Passes Away At Milton, Mass".Chicago Inter Ocean.Boston, Massachusetts. October 13, 1898. p. 5.RetrievedMarch 24,2022– viaNewspapers.
- ^Historical Note: In 1863, John Murray Forbes, served as a 'confidential agent' of Secretary of the Navy, Gideon Wells, in Paris, France. Source: Office of Naval Records and Library, Record Group 45, indicating a 'gift of personal papers'. Citation: "The Union", A Guide to Federal Archives Relating to the Civil War, 1986, edited by K.W. Munden and H. P. Beers, 452.
- ^Hughes (editor), Sarah Forbes.Life and Recollections of John Murray Forbes,Two Volumes, Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1899.
- ^abcde"Edith Emerson Forbes and William Hathaway Forbes Papers and Additions, 1827-1969".masshist.org.Massachusetts Historical Society.RetrievedJuly 19,2018.
- ^"William Hathaway Forbes".The Norfolk Virginian.October 24, 1897. p. 10.RetrievedMarch 24,2022– viaNewspapers.
- ^Pier, Arthur.Forbes: Telephone Pioneer,1953.
- ^"Mary Stewart Hewitt".Monadnock Ledger-Transcript.January 10, 2010. Archived fromthe originalon February 21, 2010.RetrievedNovember 14,2010.
She is survived by her husband, Peter M. Hewitt; two daughters, Margaret F. Meath of Lorton, Va., and Sarah M. Tibbetts of Scituate, Mass.; two sons, James S. Huntington-Meath of Chapel Hill, N.C., and Jonathan G. Meath of Cambridge, Mass.
- ^White, John H. Jr.(Spring 1986). "America's Most Noteworthy Railroaders".Railroad History.154:9–15.ISSN0090-7847.JSTOR43523785.OCLC1785797.
- ^Eaton, David Wolfe (1916).How Missouri Counties, Towns and Streams Were Named.The State Historical Society of Missouri. p. 174.
Further reading
[edit]- Larson, John Lauritz (1984).Bonds of Enterprise: John Murray Forbes and Western Development in America's Railway Age.Cambridge, Mass.: Havard University Press.ISBN0875841554.
External links
[edit]
- Dictionary of Unitarian & Universalist Biography: John Murray ForbesArchivedNovember 23, 2008, at theWayback Machine
- Old Plank Road Trail history and development.Retrieved October 2, 2013.
- John Murray ForbesatFind a Grave
- 1813 births
- 1898 deaths
- People from Milton, Massachusetts
- People from Dukes County, Massachusetts
- Phillips Academy alumni
- Businesspeople from Boston
- 19th-century American railroad executives
- Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad people
- Massachusetts Republicans
- Massachusetts Democrats
- American philanthropists
- Founders of American schools and colleges
- American abolitionists
- American Unitarians
- American expatriates in France
- American expatriates in China
- Forbes family
- People from Bordeaux