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IN MEMORIAM
William Thaw
BORN IN PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA, October 12, 1818.
DIED IN PARIS, FRANCE, August 17, 1889.
Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.
Printed by Jos. Eichbaum & Co. Pittsburgh.
1891.
[When collecting the material for this Memorial, in some unaccountable manner this excellent article was overlooked. It was written by Rev. E. P. Cowan, D. D., Mr. Thaw's pastor, at the request of the editors of The Missionary Review of the World, and appeared in that magazine December, 1889. The editors, in an introductory note, write : "We are publishing a series of articles on ' The Ministry of Money.' We place this in the series, profoundly sensible of the power of such an example." It is given here in a somewhat abridged form, the portions omitted are mainly what had been said by others, and the aim is not to repeat, either in the body of the Memoir, or this sup- plement.] M- c- T-
The late William Thaw, who was for forty -eight years a consistent member of the Third Presbyterian Church, Pittsburgh, Pa., besides leaving to each member of his large family an ample fortune, and be- queathing hundreds of thousands of dollars to various colleges, hos- pitals, homes, boards, associations, relatives, and individual friends, left also to each and all of us one of the richest legacies the Christian Church has ever received.
This legacy we may avail ourselves of immediately if we like; or, we may decline to receive it altogether. If we decline it, we shall be the losers. If we accept, it can be made to yield untold blessings, not only to ourselves, but to generations yet unborn. This legacy I need hardly say, is the noble example left us in the record of his magnificent life.
Pittsburghers had been so long familiar with his phenomenal course, that while he was yet with us, we hardly realized to the full extent how great and good he really was; but when oh that sad 17th of August the black headline of an evening paper sent an inexpressible pain to all our hearts with the startling announcement, 'William Thaw dead!' all were rudely awakened to the fact that Pittsburgh had lost her foremost citizen, and the Church of Christ one of its staunchest friends and strongest supporters. The power of his life was strikingly revealed in the deep feeling of sorrow evoked from the heart of this great city, by the announcement of his death. The loss of no one man in all this region has ever caused as many genuine tears of grief to flow, as did the death of William Thaw. When his remains, brought back to his native land and city, in the same steamer that had carried him across
only six weeks before, lay in state in the Third Presbyterian Church from 10 a. m. to 1 P. M., it is estimated that over five thousand people of all grades in life came to look once more and for the last time upon his strong but kindly face. * * *
And why, some one may ask, was this unusual expression of sorrow over the death of this one man? He was rich, it is true ; but we have all seen rich meu die with scarcely a sincere mourner to follow them to their graves. He was intellectually brilliant. He had a mind as clear as a sunbeam, and his apprehension of things was marvelously quick and confident. He had within him all those elements which, had they been unsanctified, would have put most men at his mercy. With his power to acquire, coupled with his indomitable will, he could easily have become a most powerful oppressor of the poor. But he was just the opposite. He had taken his lesson of life from the great Teacher of men. His heart had been touched by divine grace. He aimed to be like his Master, and hence his heart overflowed with love for humanity. He was a friend to the friendless. He strove to raise up those that were bowed down, and to deliver the oppressed from their oppressions. He went about doing good; and so he drew irresistibly toward him all whose lives in auy way came in contact with his own.
The story of the giving of his means for the relief of suffering, for the advancement of truth, for the bettering of the condition of his fellow men, should be told far and wide, that others endowed with wealth may learn the secret of enjoying their money, and at the same time advancing the kingdom of God in the world. Think of a busy man with vast interests involving many millions always on his mind, who could spend a large part of every morning of his life (except the Sabbath) in minis- tering to the wants of others. It has been truly said, that he seemed to work harder in giving his money away than he did in earning
Did he consider himself overrun with applicants for aid? Well, one would think so until some day he joined the throng and himself presented the case of some worthy object; then the illusion would be dispelled, and the applicant as he left would almost feel that he had done the man a favor in coming. Indeed, I have known it to be the case that when some committee came to him representing some cause that especially commended itself to him, he not only responded quickly,
liberally, cheerfully, but afterwards would say to the greatly astonished applicants, ' I am really obliged to you for giving me the opportunity of helping so good a cause.'
Not satisfied with attending to those who came voluntarily to him, he would frequently write or send word to those whom he had learned were involved in some special trouble, that he would like to have them come and see him. He kept himself informed as to public needs, and volunteered aid often before it was asked for. He was well posted as to all the agencies for doing good in all the different churches, but he by no means neglected his own. He gave liberally to all the Boards of the Presbyterian Church through his church collections, and with direct contributions. If any collections were taken up in his own church when he was absent, he always wanted his pastor to let him know; and a note to that effect always brought by return mail his liberal check in response. But it is needless to write more concerning the almost bound- less benevolence of this rare man. He was consecrated to the minis- try of giving as truly and as religiously as was ever any preacher of the gospel consecrated to his work, and in this ministry he found his high- est employment and his supremest pleasure. If any one would study this life and catch inspiration from this noble example, let him remem- ber these main features :
1. Mr. Thaw began giving on principle, and systematically, when a comparatively poor man. He was sometimes heard to say that his first subscription to some benevolent operations in his own church was three dollars a month. Then he would smile, and say, 'That seemed small, but it amounted to $36 a year.' Having begun on this plan he simply kept it up. He saw no reason why, after God bad prospered him, he should give any less in proportion than he did before such prosperity came to him. Giving had become a well formed habit with him, and when his means were enlarged, if he made any change at all, it was more likely an increase in the proportion than otherwise.
2. Regarding part of his possessions as already consecrated to God, he did not have to go continually through the act, and, with some men, the struggle of giving. He regarded himself as God's steward in the matter, and felt only anxious that he should faithfully and wisely distribute what he already considered as belonging to the Lord. He had consequently all the joy of giving, with none of that lingering
regret which some men feel at parting with what passes for a generous contribution.
3. He gave with the purest and highest motives. He resisted all attempts to have his name connected with his benefactions. Thaw uni- versities, colleges, halls, homes, chairs, libraries, etc., could have been (lotted all over this land with his money had he so allowed it, and there would have been no harm in it; but this was not his idea. It was God's money he was disbursing. He gave for God's sake, and for humanity's sake — not for his own. His reward was in giving; not in having people know that he gave. It was these three elements in his giving that mule it to him a constant pleasure. As a conse- quence, since he was always giving he was always happy. He was a thoroughly religions man. but he was singularly free from religious cant. lie had the reputation of being able to get angry under just prov- ocation. There was good metal in his makeup; and indeed so strong a character as his was, would have been defective had it lacked the power, in this bad world, of at times feeling and expressing a just indignation. When he took his stand he was as firm as a rock. He could refuse an applicant for aid and refuse quickly, too, and decidedly; yet his heart was so overflowing with benevolence that it had generally to be a desperately bad cause to compel him to forego the pleasure of giving. In all my intercourse with him in his home and elsewhere, I am sure I never saw him in any other than the best of humors. He impressed me as being singularly buoyant in spirit. Conscious each day of having made others happy, he could but be happy himself. He believed with all his heart, and knew by a rich experience, ten thousand times repeated, that it was indeed 'more blessed to give than to receive.' A grander, happier, more useful life than this I know not of. Shall not we accept the legacy he has given ns ? Is not such a life a study for us all; especially for those whom God has blessed with an abundance of this world's goods '.'
WILLIAM THAW.
When a whole city mourns, when rich and poor, Partaking of one common sorrow, grieves, There needs no words to tell how well was spent The life whose actions such sweet fragrance leaves; When long the path where three score years and ten Has run a life whose close a multitude regret, For whose cessation eyes unused to tears are wet, Such flowers of charity his steps attend, For whom the widow and the orphan moan, And from the byways and the crowded street, Where'er men congregate, or hap'ning meet, Where'er his tender heart, and deeds, are known, One common voice laments his life-time's end, Who to all men alike a brother was and friend.
How well that life was spent no tongue need say —
Whose end the palace and the hovel mourn —
When daily to the indigent was borne
His bounties numerous from day to day.
Though given not to avarice his heart,
Of this world's goods drew in a plenteous part,
Yet no man's envy had, in that he made
Himself "Our Father's" almoner to aid
The poor and sick, and all in need ;
Nor held himself aloof in pride austere
Of wealth from fellow men ; but to their words,
Whate'er their plea, inclined a willing ear;
And lived a life so grand and good, I would
That all men held with men such brotherhood.
No grander record of an active life,
When done is all its triumphs and its pains,
When ended all its rivalries and strife,
Than such a monument, O friend, remains
As thou has built in memories of men,
In hearts of all the friendless sick and poor.
So no men envy thee thy wealth, in that
No burdened soul went helpless from thy door.
Nor church, nor hospital, whate'er its creed,
But had thy succor in its time of need.
Behold my servant Job, the Almighty said —
A perfect and an upright man.
Can we not trust that this all-seeing God
Beheld thee, too, and all the doings of thy hand ?
Sometimes we question, in our hours of doubt,
What good the lives of men have been or be,
What better is the world that they have lived.
No doubter questions that, dead friend, of thee.
Thy bounties reached not only sick and poor,
Where halls of learning, Science temples stand,
Thy will and means inspired, thy brain controlled,
Great enterprises that enriched the land,
And showed the world how rightly used large wealth
In hands of noble men, unselfish, great,
Debases not, nor yet oppression makes,
But benefits alike the masses and the State;
Thy memory leaves like statue towering grand
On some high mountain peak that overlooks the land.
These verses were written by an old friend of Mr. Thaw's, the day the news of his death was received in his own city of Pittsburgh, and appeared in the Gazette in the same form in which they are now given. In reading them one can comprehend somewhat the feeling which stirred the whole community on that beautiful morning of August 17th, 1889. And if the outside world so grieved, those only who have passed through a similar experience can realize what it
4
Rev. D. H.
Riddle, Commercial
Gazette,
August 28,
1889.
meant to those nearest and dearest to him, when, without the least preparation, with no previous word of his illness — came the crushing message: "Father died this morning at ten o'clock, of heart failure."
The story is like so many others. A little overexertion ; unusual weariness, and a slight chill ; followed by severe, but not alarming ill- ness— with no apprehension of a fatal termination until the last morn- ing, when it was too late to do more than send to those at home the words quoted above, and the brief particulars, which meant so little compared with the momentous, irrevocable fact.
The lines given below were written by Rev. David Riddle, son of Mr. Thaw's former pastor, and well express the feelings of many besides the writer.
And has it failed, that heart so strong and tender,
Where fears were hushed and sheltered loved ones lay ?
That brain, which flashed its thought, did it surrender To mortal weariness and death's decay ?
O liberal heart! O hand! whose princely giving
Spread as the river, secret as its source, To give, not get, was most thy joy in living,
Thy passion to fling largess in thy course.
O monumental life! for years uplifted
Above the mass with whom we had to do — Straight man for crooked times, clear, strong and gifted
To show on four fair sides things just and true.
Not truth alone, but grace and beauty mingled.
Lilies were carved about that pillared strength, Men show not man full-orbed ; and so God singled
This massive, mature gentleman at length.
And is he dead, this good man and great hearted Man's benefactor, and our father's friend ?
And must we count him among the departed? Shall we write now o'er such a life — the end?
Not so. Life's slender silver cord is broken, The golden bowl we quaffed in fragments lies,
But other- where the fountain flows in token The body failed, the true life never dies.
The darkly-laden ship through sad seas sailing,
Bears fast his body to these lonely shores, But far-off isles the soul's white sails are hailing,
And unknown ports receive its precious stores.
O homes so long enriched, now desolated,
O dusky city by the confluent streams, Know that the grand, good life has not abated :
He knows, serves, loves beyond our fullest dreams.
Just as he wished, and as it well became him, In ripest manhood, and with powers still rife,
No flaws to mar, no weaknesses to shame him, He quickly passed from this to God's next life.
On Pisgah tops of time he stood reviewing The ages past whose triumphs he part planned,
With cheerful front looked on to the ensuing,
But went from earth's to heaven's promised land.
He had gone away, for rest and recuperation, and that he might revisit places of interest in the old world. He did not go, as many were led to suppose, in search of health, for he had fully recovered from the illness of the early spring, and he had planned the trip before that illness came upon him. All rejoiced that for a time he was free from the cares which seemed only to increase as the years went on. And thus there was added to the sorrow for the loss, the bitter thought that he had died so far from home and country, and separated from most of those who would have ministered to him in his last hours. Only such recollections as these : " The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord," and " The Lord is not far from them that fear him," made it possible to understand this dark Providence. Then followed the long days of waiting, while the noble steamer, The City of
Paris, in which he had felt so much pride and interest, bore to these shores him she had carried away only six weeks before.
It is not possible to give in this volume more than brief extracts from the mass of newspaper sketches and tributes, neither all the verses prompted by affectionate regard. It is not necessary. All through his life he was " a living epistle, known and read of all men," and his memory is cherished by thousands to whom his ready, timely help was given, as well as by those who enjoyed the greater privilege of calling him friend.
No greater mistake could be made than to suppose his life of service for others cost him nothing but money. None will ever fully know the infinite patience with which he bore the infirmities and weak- nesses of his fellow creatures, and how, while burdened with cares of business, and plans and thoughts for greater things, he yet could drop these and listen, and, as well as the circumstances would allow, try to ascertain the merits of each case, and act accordingly. Fully conscious that he was often deceived, he still, without becoming hardened, patiently endured to the end.
If there was one form of benevolence his heart delighted in more than another, it was that of providing means to secure higher education for those who seemed worthy of it ; and he frequently referred to it as " putting tools into the hands of young people with which they could carve their own fortunes." And most costly tools they were; for, not content with merely providing for the tuition of such, he was ever ready to furnish means for all the accessories of such a career — money for boarding, clothing, traveling, lectures, etc., fairly bewildering the recipients, often, by the lavishness with which benefits were showered upon them. In addition to this he found time to write letters of counsel, kindly criticism, and encouragement, often beyond what was deserved ; taking, for the time, the place of guardian and father, to many, who, after his death, equally lamented the loss of the pecuniary help, and of the encouragement given so freely. It is needless to say that sometimes he was deceived, even by those he had felt most interest in. Yet how many there are now occupying places of trust and responsi- bility, successful in every way, who, but for the ready aid of Mr. Thaw, might have struggled for years to reach what was theirs, liter- ally, " for the asking." Surely such owe a duty toward their less
favored fellows, infinitely beyond the responsibility of the self- supporting.
But the highest form of his work was that for the extension of the kingdom of the Redeemer. To this end he devoted thought, prayer and means. Fully realizing that the wealth of a Christian is held only as a trust, he lived up to his convictions in a way few do. The world knows of some of these gifts ; the record of most is only on high, where already he has received his Lord's words of approval and welcome.
With all the manifold business in which he was engaged, the wonder has always been that he could find time for the immense cor- respondence this work for others gave him to do. Those familiar with his methods understand it. It was simply " doing with his might what his hands found to do," and taking up the duty which seemed to lie nearest. Rapidly reading his large morning mail, he would make a few notes on the margin or back of each, and afterwards letter after letter would be written with almost phenomenal rapidity; now, perhaps, to a college president, or some scientist; again, to a minister or mis- sionary; now to one of his numerous proteges pursuing their studies in this country or abroad, frequently inclosing money, or drafts, to this or that beneficiary, or institution. And he would labor thus, with the continual interruptions of callers, until almost noon ; then to the office, where the remainder of the day was divided between business and a repetition of this work for others, which very frequently was not finished until in the evening, at his own home. Though often weary and worn, he persevered to the end in the course he had marked out for himself, never " living to himself alone," always ready to bear the burdens of others.
Need more be said? The extracts which follow will show the estimation in which he was held, and how he, who, while living, would never allow any honor to be conferred upon him, was, in his death and burial, honored and mourned in a way which falls to the lot of but few.
The inner home life is not touched upon. It is written in the hearts of those to whom it belongs, and has no place in this volume, prepared, as it is, not only for these, but for a much wider circle of friends and acquaintances.
Gazett August 19,
[Extracts from the Daily Newspapers^*
Pittsburgh "Few messages are freighted with such grief and genuine sorrow
Commercial, an(j bring sadness to so many hearts as the one that flashed over the cable from the city of Paris Saturday morning and told the city of 1889. Pittsburgh that William Thaw was dead.
Doubly sad it seemed that he, whose acts of charity and benevo- lence were distributed with open hand, should end his life away from the city that has cause to remember his munificence, and from the thousands whose lives have been brightened and burdens eased by his liberality. He was a noble man, whose life was marked more by the use he made of his great wealth than by the unusual prosperity that fell to his lot. How sadly he will be missed the hundreds and thou- sands of weary, toil-worn laborers, desolate, sad-eyed mothers, and helpless, forsaken orphans alone can tell. He was not the Pharisee who sounded a trumpet before him that all the world might witness his deeds of charities. He gave away a fortune each year that the public never heard of. He was frequently the victim of impostors, but was never deterred thereby from a benevolent action.
In the ordinary walks of life he was modest and unassuming, and, though possessed of a fortune, the extent of which is not known, no one to meet him or to see him in his office or on the street would have taken him for anything but a business man in moderate circumstances. He avoided all display and ostentation. He could be approached at any time, and always lent a willing ear to the tales of the distressed. Through no effort of his to attain it, he won the reputation of being the philanthropist of Western Pennsylvania, and when Pittsburghers were asked to name the foremost men of the city, they began, without hesitation, with the name of William Thaw."
* These extracts from the long newspaper articles are selected with a view to avoiding, as much as possible, repetition— while preserving the continuity.
Mr. Thaw married in 1841 Eliza Burd Blair, of Washington, Pa., a young lady of singularly attractive appearance and disposition. Her death in 18b'2 left him with five children, two daughters and three sons. In 1867 he married Mary Sibbet Copley, daughter of a life- long editor and writer, well known in this community. She, with five children, likewise three sons and two daughters, survives him, making a large family of ten children living, while two children of each marriage died in infancy.
" William Thaw was born in Pittsburgh, October 12th, 1818, of Pittsburgh Scotch-Irish parents. His great-grandfather, John Thaw, was born in Chronicle Philadelphia in 1710, and died in 1795. Benjamin, grandfather of eeg>"p' William Thaw, was born in 1753. He married Hannah Engle, of 1889§ an old Philadelphia Quaker family, and died in 1811. One of their children was John Thaw, the father of deceased.
John Thaw removed to Pittsburgh fourteen years before the birth of William. The latter's education was finished in the Western Uni- versity. He began business in 1834 as clerk in his father's bank, and on February 9th, 1835, he entered the service of McKee, Clarke & Co., forwarding and commission merchants, as a clerk. In 1840 he formed a partnership with Thos. S. Clarke, his brother-in-law, as transporters and owners of steam and canal boats, which continued until 1855.
During these years the canal system was the great channel of com- munication between the East and the West. This had been suggested as early as 1792, but the links in the chain were not connected until the fall of 1834, when the Philadelphia and Columbia road and the Allegheny Portage road were completed, making, with the canal, a through line between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. This means of communication gave a wonderful impetus to Pittsburgh, and the business of furnishing transportation became one of the most im- portant lines of enterprise. Clarke & Thaw owned and controlled the Pennsylvania and Ohio line, and held their own. The advent of steam revolutionized trade and commerce. The Pennsylvania Railroad had its beginning August 13th, 1846, the last division was opened February loth, 1854, and the subsequent purchase of the Phil- adelphia and Columbia road gave the Pennsylvania Company through
10
communication from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, and, of course, put an
end to the canals.
Recognizing the inevitable result of the contest, Mr. Thaw gave himself to the task of disposing of their transportation lines, including both the canal equipment and their large interests in the great packets, which formed the daily line between Pittsburgh and Cincinnati, with the least possible loss, and then turned his attention to the new system. In 1856 he joined his former partner, Thomas S. Clarke, who had the previous year undertaken the conduct of the freight traffic of the Penn- sylvania Railroad west of Pittsburgh. At this time there was no system of through bills of lading, and through cars such as now prevails, and each road worked independently. The whole business of freight transportation was in almost a chaotic state, and the expense was tre- mendous. About 1864, gentlemen interested in the Pennsylvania Railroad Company devised a system of through transportation over different lines, and the Star Union Line was the result. Of this Mr. Thaw had charge until 1873, and is entitled to a large share of the credit of evolving the system, although, with characteristic modesty, he always said his labor was shared with others, and that the system grew of itself, and out of the necessities of the situation.
The Pennsylvania Company was chartered April 7th, 1870, for the purpose of managing, in the interest of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, which owns all the stock of the former company, the roads controlled by the latter west of Pittsburgh. The importance of this company raav be estimated when one looks at the list of lines concen- trated under this system. Among them are the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne & Chicago, the Erie & Pittsburgh, the Cleveland & Pittsburgh and its branches, the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati & St. Louis, the Chicago, St. Louis & Pittsburgh, the Cincinnati & Muskingum Valley, the Little Miami, the St. Louis, Vandalia & Terre Haute, the Grand Rapids & Indiana, and many others.
Mr. Thaw was a director of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, Second Vice President of the Pennsylvania Company, and Second Vice President of the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati & St. Louis Railroad. Since 1873 he had been relieved of most of the duties connected with the transportation department, and had given his attention to the internal and financial affairs of the company.
11
Mr. Thaw had been for many years a member of the Third Pres- byterian Church. Me was a corporator and manager of the Allegheny Cemetery. He was an earnest and generous friend of the Allegheny Observatory, and to his liberality that institution is largely indebted for the financial help that has enabled it to prosecute its work. It was through his aid that the expedition of Prof. Langley to Mt. Whitney in Southern California, some years ago, was made possible.
Mentally Mr. Thaw was among the foremost men of the State; gifted with a high order of intelligence, strengthened by liberal culture and years of study and observation. He was an excellent judge of men, and quick to detect sham and pretense. His reasonings, based upon convictions of right and duty, were never degraded to the service of expediency or mendacity. Impetuous and persistent, he was also cautious. Broad in his views, buoyant in disposition, honest, sincere and self-reliant, strictly upright iu all his transactions, he worthily won and held a high position in the esteem and affection of all who knew him. His sympathies and benefactions were bounded neither by creed nor prejudice, and it may be truthfully said, that the world is the better^for his having lived in it."
" By the death of William Thaw, Pittsburgh loses one of its best Editorial,
citizens, who was honored and respected wherever he was known. He „ ep •11 i i -rress,
will be remembered gratefully and kindly by thousands, for he was a August 18
philanthropist upon whose ear no cry of distress ever fell unheeded. 1889. His benefactions, covering the period of an average life-time, recognized no distinction of race or religion. Endowed with great wealth, he ap- preciated its power for good ; and art, science and religion profited by his gifts. Whatever honors may be paid to his memory, his greatest and most enduring monument will be the deeds of charity and mercy which he so unostentatiously performed."
" William Thaw was a representative of what is best iu Pittsburgh's Pittsburgh
conservatism, for which our city has something of a reputation, as well tj
/> i • i f • t-»- i i i s-^ ■> August 19,
as of what is most beneficent in Pittsburgh s progress. Of an old 2889
Philadelphia family, that settled in Pittsburgh in 1804, his business training came in the days when steam and canal boats, the stage- coach and Conestoga wagon, were the means of internal communication
12
Pittsburgh.
and commerce. When the completion of the railroads east and west revolutionized all this, Mr. Thaw grappled the new condition, enlisted in its service, and stimulated its progress, so that he became an authority and leader, devising most important systems in the perfection of railway communication. His large fortune was used in a public way to promote educational and benevolent enterprises, but his private charities were profuse, and lent a helping hand to hundreds and thousands. It is no idle talk, but the soberest of truth, to say that Pittsburgh never had a citizen who did such noble, practical and liberal work in aiding scien- tific and educational enterprises, in promoting business prosperity, in maintaining business and municipal integrity, and in furthering charities and benevolence, irrespective of race or creed, as William Thaw."
Presbyterian " Mr. Thaw was a man of muscular frame, quick in movement,
Banner, aiK] capable of great endurance. In intellect he was almost without a superior. His countenance indicated the power of thought and the strength of will with which he was endowed. Notwithstanding his many and pressing business engagements, he was an untiring reader of newspapers, popular literature, and historical, scientific and theo- logical works. His memory of persons and things was something amazing. It was a rich treat to hear him talk of the people whom he had known, or of whom he had heard or read, in this city and throughout Western Pennsylvania. The benefits of early education and habits of thought are well illustrated in his successful career. He did not enter into any engagement at hap-hazard, but after careful thought, weighing the matter in all its possible connections; and when he made anything the subject of investigation, he thought most intensely, not permitting any interruption, and then decided quickly. As a friend and companion he was one of the most entertaining of men. He took great pleasure in religious services; was a devout hearer of the preach- ing of the gospel, and was a most liberal helper of the Third Presby- terian Church of this city, of which he became a member under the ministry of the late Rev. D. H. Riddle, D. D.
But it is as a giver of large sums of money every year to churches, literary and humane institutions, to those overtaken with financial trouble or starting in life, and to the poor, that he is best known to the
13
public. When wealth began to pour in upon" him he realized his obli- gations. And although he had never known what want or even strait- ened means was, the necessities^of the poor and of those in distress touched every fiber of his nature. His largest donations have been to the Western University of this city; the Western Theological Seminary; Hanover, Oberlin, Wooster, Geneva, Carroll and Maryville Colleges, and many others in the South and West; the Homoeopathic and other hospitals in this city ; the Society for the Improvement of the Poor, School of Design, etc. The day before his death his confidential secre- tary, by his order, sent $5,000 to Rev. J. A. McAfee, toward an addi- tional building to his college at Parkville, Mo., in which he was deeply interested. The Observatory in Allegheny was a large recipient of gifts from him. By his aid the expedition of Prof. Langley to Mt. Whitney, in Southern California, a few years ago, was made possible. And it was through his liberality that Mr. John A. Brashear, of this city, has reached the front among astronomical instrument makers of "the world."
[Letter from Professor Brashear, in Chronicle Telegraph^
Bacon once said : "Certainly it is heaven upon earth to have a man's mind move in charity, rest in Providence, and turn upon the poles of truth."
In the many articles that have been written upon the life-work of Mr. William Thaw his grand and noble charity has been the leading theme, but the half has never been told, nor can it be; for how can men know of the munificence of so great a man, whose " right hand knew not what the left had done ?" Those who knew him best, all knew of his "rest in Providence," and, although they may have differed from him in their beliefs, he lived as he believed in that
"Almighty Providence ! Whose power, beyond the stretch of human thought, Kevolves the orbs of Empire; bids them sink Deep in the deadening night of thy displeasure Or rise majestic on a wondering world."
But it is not upon these themes I would write. It is upon his love of Truth — truth as he found it everywhere.
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"All truth is precious, if not all divine; And what dilates the powers must needs refine."
It was the privilege of the writer to know Mr. Thaw for many years, to have had many hours of that delightful conversation with him that not every one could have, because of the vast amount of work that the world claimed from him in his " waking" hours. I well re- member being in conversation with him at one time when his pastor, Dr. Thompson, called upon him. After a few moments' conversation the Doctor said : " I will not detain you now, but when you have time I would like to lay our work before you. When do you think you will have some time to yourself?" With a smile Mr. Thaw said, " When I am in the grave."
His wonderful grasp of every question that came up before him seemed to me almost superhuman. I have been engaged in conversation with him on some scientific topic, perhaps some new research that was being pushed forward in the domain of astronomical, or physical sci- ence, when a call would be made by some one for assistance. He would break off from the conversation, attend to the wants of the caller, and immediately resume the thread of the theme as if it had not been interrupted at all, and this has been repeated a dozen times in an hour's talk without his great mind for a moment losing its grasp upon the subject.
I have often wondered how he kept pace with the rapid strides of scientific research, but I always found him posted, ready to discuss in a clear, logical manner, questions that had only just been brought to the notice of the scientific world. On more than one occasion I have commenced a conversation with him on some interesting scientific theme — and, waiting until I had given my views, he would close his eyes, and as if in a trance go off into a profound discussion. Clear and concise, clothed in beautiful language, and showing a fertility of brain power, a high intellectuality most wonderful indeed for one who made no claim whatever to be a scientific man. Even when Mr. Thaw was convalescing from his last illness, previous to his departure for Europe, he laid before me several plans, as he was wont to call them, for " Pushing outward the boundaries of human knowledge."
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I shall never forget the last afternoon I spent an hour with him. It was the afternoon of the evening of his leaving the city for his trip abroad. He had sent for me to say good-bye. I was to stay but five minutes — but he began telling me of the researches of Dr. Janssen, President of the French Academy of Sciences, which had been of deep interest to both of us, because it was a continuation of Prof. Langley's special work on the selective absorption of the earth's atmosphere. Dr. Janssen's studies had been made with the spectroscope on the powerful electric light located upon the Eiffel Tower, and he had demonstrated that our evidence of oxygen in the sun was all negatived, notwithstand- ing the opposite result obtained by Dr. Henry Draper. I shall never forget how he began to picture our sun, burning with such an intense heat as to be capable of warming more than two billions of worlds like our own, and yet no evidence of oxygen — an anomalous condition contrary to all our ideas of combustion, yet one that he traced back to the origin of suns in the nebulous state. Such was his conversation for the better part of an hour — the last I was ever permitted to enjoy with him on earth. The five minutes had grown apace, and yet I could have wished it had been hours instead of minutes.
I have been told that his grasp of other subjects was equal to that of scientific themes. Of this I know but little.
The writer can safely say that few men in this country have con- tributed more, during their life-time, for the advancement of human knowledge than William Thaw, not only in a monetary way, but by words of encouragement, the best advice and counsel, making it possi- ble to carry on original research, and assisting in many ways institutions of learning that would surely have failed had it not been for his helping hand and his valuable advice and encouragement. No one knows this better than the writer, for when struggling against the tide to bring in- struments of precision up to the highest status, this great-hearted man came unsolicited, and, appreciating the circumstances as not one man in ten thousand would, he lent a willing, helping hand for the benefit of science. He knew as few men do know, that the man who is willing to devote his life to such work as my own, could not hope to gain a competence, or perhaps more than a scanty living, for the first ten years of his labor, for his reputation must be based upon the character of his work, and the high standard of precision to which
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that work is brought. The dead work that has to be done to reach these results, the world knows little of, and cares less. It is only the results they want; then will come the laudations from the populace, which, if he be a true man, he will care little for. Success to him is everything if it but enables those who shall make researches with the instruments and appliances he has produced to " push still further outward the border of human knowledge."
It is in this very characteristic that the man of science too often makes a blunder. William Thaw always insisted that " the workman was worthy of his hire." And years ago he gave me this noble advice, " Never sacrifice the character of your work to the pay you get for it. You should always get what the work is worth, but if you find you cannot do that particular piece of work up to your standard of excellence for the money you get for it, I will stand by you. " Where can you, in this broad earth of ours, find a higher concep- tion of right? And I say it with all earnestness, that in this good country of ours there are many young men who would rise to eminence, and make themselves known in the world, had they such encouragement and advice, and if it were necessary I could point out some of the brightest lights in our scientific world, who have received the helping hand of this grand, good man. It is not necessary for me to point to the work of our own Prof. Langley, which was fostered and encouraged by the same philanthropic spirit that gave so much to the University with which the Allegheny Observatory was connected.
The world knows it well, for when we open the splendid publica- tion that Prof. Langley has given to the world, we will usually find inscribed therein: "The expenditure needed for this special research was provided by the liberality of a citizen of Pittsburgh," etc. No man held Mr. Thaw in higher regard than did Prof. Langley, and no man felt a deeper interest in the now famous researches of Prof. Langley than William Thaw, and perhaps few men comprehended the great value of these scientific investigations better than he did. The " world" might say, of what value to man have all these studies been? Where is the practical benefit to come from them? He saw and knew that every addition to human knowledge was an addition to the sum of human happiness, and that some time, if not in his life-time, these very studies might be a great factor in contributing to the wants
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of man. I need not enlarge upon this, interesting as the theme may be, but we have only to think that some day, when our coal fields are ex- hausted, our natural gas and other sources of heat are all used up, we must in some way utilize the direct energy of the sun, and these researches that Mr. Thaw fostered and Prof. Langley spent the best part of his life-work in carrying forward, are in a large measure connected with this most important problem.
One of the most charming features of Mr. Thaw's methods of as- sisting in carrying out scientific research, was his implicit confidence in those whom he entrusted with means to do the work. They were hedged about with no worrying environments, with no signatures to a note, but were left in the fullest sense of the word to use those means, not as a charity, but for the furtherance of investigations in the domain of original research, and work of the highest precision. Had Mr. Thaw's calling been such as to have placed him in the role of a student of science, his success would no doubt have been equal to that which he achieved in business.
We cannot but feel that we have lost a great man, not only as a philanthropist in the largest sense of that word, but the searcher for the beautiful truths, that lie hidden behind the veiled laws of nature, has to mourn for one whose whole life was characterized by that love of truth, which prompted him to noble deeds in behalf of advanced scientific research, and in developing a knowledge of the good and beautiful in nature. But he shall always live in our memory. The monuments he has left behind him have been hewn from the quarries of solid truths — truths that will live when monuments of granite have crumbled into dust, aye until the stars themselves have faded, and the new dawn has been ushered in.
The soul of origin divine,
God's glorious image, freed from clay, In heaven's eternal sphere shall shine
A star of day ! The sun is but a spark of fire,
The transient meteor in the sky ; The soul, immortal as its sire,
Shall never die.
John A. Brashear.
18
[Letter of Rev. H. Johnson, D. D., in New York Evangelist. .]
The death of this remarkable man put Pittsburgh in tears. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania shared in the sorrow. But there was a wideness and mightiness in the influence of his life, quite beyond all local limits, justifying far more than the usual word of remembrance and grateful eulogy. As one who knew him many years, and in some of the most precious and sacred relations of life, I bring this tribute to his memory. It seems meet, moreover, that there should be emphasized to the thought and heart of the Church, more fully than has yet been done, the worth of this prince among men.
From first to last, through a half-century, he was a man of business. Starting in modest circumstances, Pittsburgh soon grew to recognize him as one of her foremost citizens. His business interests widened under his wise supervision, until they compassed the continent, and rep- resented millions of wealth. He stood unchallenged through all these years, a model of energy, efficiency, and integrity — the very soul of business honor, the affable, genial Christian gentleman, never associated with questionable processes in the pursuit of gain, never abating his in- terest in, and his zeal for, affairs, yet never allowing himself to be so absorbed in them as to be unmindful of either the amenities or sanctities of life. He had rare gifts of management. He had insight and fore- sight, and a long memory. His mind moved like lightning. He went flashing through difficulties, and was swift to conclusion, and rarely wrong. Nor did he move along narrow lines. He thought broadly. He combined intensity and comprehensiveness, as scarcely any other man I ever knew. This gave him a genius for business. But it made it impossible that he should forget the man in the business. No com- mercial transactions, however vast, could confine him. He went out into literature, into science, into mechanic and fine arts, into philosophy and history, and enriched himself with much spoil from these varied fields. Of course thesa were the " asides" of his busy life. But he traversed these paths so often, and with so ready and keen an eye, that he could talk with a rare engagingness, and interest, of any one of them. What a scientist he would have made, if he had given himself to science. And who that ever was accustomed to hear him on an author or a book, or that ever was admitted to the inner chambers of his friendship, where
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he conversed upon the deeper topics of his heart, can recall the chaste precision and felicity and affluence of his speech, and the originality and vigor of his thought, and doubt that if he had become a man of letters instead of a man of affairs, he would have risen to most distinguished literary eminence.
Tie, now, his intensity and comprehensiveness to a strong will, that made him resolute and of fixed purpose; grip that will with a conscience enlightened by the Word of God, and soften it by a great, sympathetic heart, where God has laid the beams of the chambers of his grace, and you have the combination that made Mr. Thaw one of the most remark- able men with whom I ever had the pleasure of association. Other men have had one or another of these royal parts, so as to be pre-eminent in special fields; but in him they appeared in very unusual combina- tion, so that in the home, in society, before a Bible class, in the tender beseechings of a heart uplifted in prayer, in vigorous debate, in earnest contention for what he believed to be the truth, in sympathetic contact with the poor and unfortunate, in fact, in every relation of life, he was an intellectual, social, religious stimulus. Men respected him, confided in him, leaned on him, were tied to him, in a thousand ways. Ten thousand citizens of Pittsburgh looked into his dead face, and tears were on their faces, and more tears were in their hearts, as they thought of the burdens he had lightened, and the griefs he had assuaged, and the hopes he had kindled, as he had come in touch with their need.
His piety was of the sort that did not herald itself by any special mien, or carriage, or nomenclature. While respectful of forms, he cared little for the merely outward and external. He could not be hampered by any set phraseology, or prescribed methods, in religious worship and work and conversation. But the Word of God took deep hold of his nature, making him a man of the profouudest religious convictions. He could be severe on occasion, but only with the severity of truth. His convictions did not make him austere. They only gave a base to his tender-heartedness and abounding sympathy, and kept a naturally emotional and genial nature, that was richly veined with humor, from degenerating into license and mawkish sentimentality. The pathos of Calvary stirred his inmost soul, and often and often I have seen his face suffused with feeling, and his eyes filled with tears. His heart was like
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a child's. Yet his keen, clear, intellectual discrimination rarely failed him. And his love was of the Apostolic sort, " abounding more and more in knowledge and in all judgment."
Perhaps Mr. Thaw is most widely known for his benevolence. But the general reputation is after all inadequate to the quantity, or the quality of his giving. He grew rich. But he was not enslaved by his riches. He held them ; they did not hold him. And he held them as from his Lord, only in trust, and therefore for service. It is absolutely safe to say he gave away millions before he died. When he began his business career, he scrupulously set apart a tenth of his then slender income for God. Just what figures his generous heart mounted up to along the intervening years, I do not know ; but there is not a shadow of doubt that his gifts more than kept pace with his accumulations.
He never bulked his gifts, so that they loomed large to the public eye. He was strangely averse to notoriety. He built no million, or half-million, monument in one place, as a shining record of his good deed. He gave widely, quietly, multipliedly, and it may well be be- lieved, a hundred thousand hearts thank God this day for direct proofs of his generous liberality, while institutions, by the score, have been the recipients of his bounty.
But the spirit with which he gave, transcends by all odds the amount he gave. It was so genial, so tender of sensitive meed, so royal- natured, so heartily cordial, so set about with pleasantness, that one often felt in going from his presence after successful appeal to his liber- ality, that he had been conferring a favor, instead of receiving one. In this respect this great heart was princely.
His last will and testament is traced all over with the character- istics that marked the man. The multiform diversity of his benefac- tions, the delicate consideration for those in special circumstances of need, the remembrance of the poor and the unfortunate, the personality and tenderness of his relations to individuals, the wideness of his sym- pathetic interest, his discriminating judgment — they are all in this word of his, left to be opened, and read, after his decease.
If only the giving a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple, is assured of eternal reward, who can conceive, who shall dare hazard a guess, what God brought from out his infinite stores to reward the man with such a record, when He called him from his earthly steward-
21 Herrick Johnson.
ship ?
August 30th, 1889, at the Third Presbyterian Church.*
How a life that has been spent for good can bring together the hearts of men and bind closer the ties of humanity regardless of sect or creed, was fully demonstrated yesterday at the funeral of the late William Thaw. Long before the hour announced for the opening of the Third Presbyterian Church, where the body was to lie in state, crowds began to assemble. They came from the purlieus of poverty and from the aristocratic mansions of the wealthy ; there were members and communicants from all religious denominations; those who acknowl- edge no religion but humanity, and those who believe in naught. Gentile and Jew, Christian and infidel, rubbed shoulders, brought there by a com- mon feeling of love and respect for a great and good man, whose every act in life had tended to make every one with whom he came in contact better for having known him. It was not only material aid, which he dispensed with a most lavish hand, that endeared him to the hearts of the vast multitude, but his kindly sympathy and words of encourage- ment.
At ten o'clock the hearse containing the remains arrived, and, between lines of sorrowing people with bowed heads, the casket was slowly carried into the church and placed in front of the altar. Ac- cording to the wishes of the deceased, there was no floral display, except a graceful palm at each side of the pulpit and a basket of white roses behind the casket. As in life his philanthropic deeds had been done without ostentation, so in death there was no display.
When the lid was removed from the casket, displaying the features of the dead philanthropist, a long line of friends bearing the impress
*Tliis portion is made up of brief extracts, from the daily papers, to form one continuous narrative.
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of their grief on their countenances, slowly filed by and gazed for the last time on the face that was endeared to all. He was the friend of every one in that vast throng, and the benefactor of many. The face was so natural and life-like that he seemed to be in a peaceful sleep. Slowly the crowd passed by'; silently fell many a glittering tear on the black covering of the casket; solemnly lips moved in earnest prayer. A scene more impressive and purifying could not be imagined.
For three hours there was a constant stream of mourners passing the casket, and at one o'clock, when the doors had to be closed, there were still many who had not succeeded in looking on that noble face. As many as it was possible were allowed to pass in, but finally the doors were closed and preparations made for the public service.
At one o'clock the line was stopped, the church doors were closed, and the cover was replaced over the face. For one hour the church was quiet and cool. The windows were open and the summer breeze blew through the holy precincts. The church ushers allotted the sev- eral parts of the auditorium reserved for the various attendants. The front portion of the central block of seats was set apart for the mem- bers of the family and relatives. The front portion of the western block was allotted to railway officials. On the eastern side spaces were reserved for the trustees and faculties of the Western University and the Homceopathic Hospital.
Shortly after two o'clock the family and immediate friends arrived at the church, and after they had been seated near the bier, the doors were again thrown open to the public. The auditorium was soon filled to its utmost capacity and every seat in the gallery crowded. Every space available for standing room was also occupied. Several hundred people were unable to get into the church at all, but remained standing outside during the entire service. An air of profound solemnity per- vaded the church. The front of the pulpit was heavily draped in black. The expression of every face was an indication that their only thoughts were of the man who had been known by all classes for his great philanthropy, business talent, generosity and kindness. Many were there who had not seen the inside of a church since their infancy, whose thoughts are but rarely if ever turned from worldly affairs, yet their tear-dimmed eyes spoke more eloquently than words of the better and holier nature within, having been stirred to the depths by
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the character and life of the deceased. Some were there with faces so beautified by the confidence of a Christian's feeling of a brighter life to come that they looked as though they had been brushed by an angel's wing. On every side could be seen evidences of the potent in- fluence for good the life of a great, good man can have.
The assemblage at the church was such an one as perhaps had never been gathered together before in this city on a similar occasion. Ministers of every denomination were present. In one group were noticed Bishop Whitehead, of the Episcopal Church ; Rev. Dr. Passa- vant, of the Lutheran Church; Rev. Father M. M. Sheedy, Rabbi Meyer, Rev. E. R. Donehoo, Rev. W. J. Holland, Rev. Dr. James Allison and Rev. Mr. Fox. There was also a large representation of the bankers and business men of the city. The following representative men were noticed :
President George B. Roberts, First Vice President Frank Thomson, Second Vice President J. N. Du Barry, Directors H. H. Houston, N. Parker Shortridge and Amos R. Little, General Solicitor John Scott, General Superintendent of Transportation S. M. Prevost and General Superintendent of Motive Power T. N. Ely, all of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company; W. H. Barnes, Receiver of the Allegheny Valley Road; F. L. Neall, of the Inman Steamship Line; Stephen Little, General Auditor of the Pullman Palace Car Company; D. S. Gray, General Agent of the Pennsylvania Company ; F. H. Kingsbury, General Eastern Superintendent Union Freight Line; E. A. Dawson, General Western Superintendent Union Line ; W. W. Chandler, Agent Union Line at Chicago ; W. E. Lawrence, Western Manager Inman Steamship Line ; William Bonier, Division Freight Agent Pennsylvania Company at Chicago ; H. W. Brown, General Agent Union Line at Cincinnati; D. T. McCabe, Assistant General Freight Agent Panhandle Company ; W O. Hughart, President Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad ; J. H. P. Hughart, Assistant to the Presi- dent of the Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad ; E. A. Beach, Agent of the Union Line at Columbus ; A. T. Wilds, Agent of the Union Line at New York ; S. H. Church, Superintendent of Transportation of the Panhandle Company.
The funeral services were simple and impressive. A solemn dirge was played on the great organ by Prof. Joseph H. Gittings, while the
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vast audience was being seated. As the last notes died away, the quar- tette choir of the Third Church sang one of Mr. Thaw's favorite
hymns :
" I would not live alway, I ask not to stay, When storm after storm rises dark o'er the way. The few lurid mornings that dawn on us here Are enough of life's woes, full enough for its cheer."
The hymn was sung throughout with such tenderness that many in the audience were affected to tears.
After the singing of this hymn, the pastor, Rev. E. P. Cowan, D. D., read the fifteenth chapter of 1st Corinthians, and the last chapter of Revelation.
Mrs. Webster then sang the hymn, " I know that my Redeemer liveth."
Rev. George T. Purves, D. D., First Presbyterian Church.
It is fitting upon this occasion that some one should utter the feelings of this community, in view of the bereavement which has fallen heavily upon it, as well as on the family of our honored friend. My brethren who will follow me, and who have in the past stood closer to Mr. Thaw than I have, will speak of the aspects of his life with which they are naturally more familiar. It will be my place this afternoon to endeavor briefly to express the sentiments of his fellow citizens, and to pay our common tribute to one whom we have all learned to reverence, to honor, to imitate, and above all, to love.
Mr. Thaw has been identified with Pittsburgh for many years. He has seen it change from a village to a metropolis. He has seen its industries increase to their present vast proportions. He has seen the streets become so crowded that where once almost every face was familiar, now the most of us are strangers as we meet. And in all of the changes which have come over this city he has been largely interested. He has had much to do in bringing them about; still more, he has been most intimately associated with almost all who are before me this afternoon. Known by all classes and knowing all classes, the friend of every one, his face was a familiar object on our streets, and in the mind of this community he has been identified to an unusual degree with its rise, its progress and its happiness. It is but scant
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justice that we should lay our tribute of affection and honor upon his coffin, and that seeking to praise the Divine Grace which, as he would have been the first to confess, wrought through his hands, we should testify our gratitude to God for what through his servant, He has done among and for us.
This community has seen in Mr. Thaw an illustrious example of one who united success in life with spotless integrity. That, of itself, is a great deal. That he was successful we all know, though I do not mean to say that his success was wholly due to his integrity. There were in him other qualities of brain and heart and hand which wrought marvels. Quick to see opportunities and bold to embrace them, he has made his life in this commercial metropolis a conspicuous example ot what the world calls success. But he has united with it, as often is not done, a high sense of honor, scrupulous fidelity to truth, his word being like his bond, and he could be trusted always and everywhere. This is the first spectacle which our honored friend has presented through a long life to this community, and it would be worth while coming here this afternoon, if, by the young men of Pittsburgh, the im- pression is derived from his example, that success and integrity are compatible, and that one may live most wisely in this world, and yet most wisely also for the world to come.
Furthermore, Mr. Thaw has illustrated before this the city in which his lot was cast, marvelous success, combined with wonderful generosity. I do not mean to be indelicate when I speak of these things, but, as I have said, it seems to me scant justice that in this presence mention should be made of his wide, loving heart and his always open hand. He has been known among you as a philan- thropist. Down deep belowT his love for humankind was his love of God, and out of that love of God his love of man proceeded. I think you will testify that I speak the truth when I say that his generosity arose from a sense of responsibility. He felt that he was a steward of God; that God had granted him great opportunities, and that he must render to his Maker his account; and hence it was that his liberality was, what is not always the case, personal. It grew out of his own personal interest in mankind. Oftentimes would he seek to know those whom he might help, that his own kind sympathies might reach them as well as his gifts. His was neither a formal nor forced
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generosity. It was a constant personal outflow of love to man. And then, too, it was varied and almost universal. Most men do good in certain lines, and beyond them they often can see no good. He sought opportunity among all. In religion and in science ; in morals and in education; for the church and for the world; at home and abroad : for those who were known, and for many more that were unknown ; for those who were before the public eye, and for the poor and the forgotten, his benevolence was exerted. Simple need was all he required to find, and as God gave him the ability, he loved to, and helped, his fellow man. If with a like sense of responsibility every one of us could, in some such measure, discharge the debt we owe to God, through doing good to men, how different this world would be. How many smiles there would be to-day where there are tears; how many light, instead of heavy hearts ; how near would all classes and all men be drawn to one another.
But most of all you have had before you through these three score years and ten a character whom you have learned to love. A man may be a man of integrity, and yet not lovable; a man may be a generous man, and yet not lovable. It is a further grace, a crowning grace, when before the community which has known him so intimately, it is possible for me to say that there was added to his character a personal interest in others, which drew them to him as sons to a father, as brethren to an elder brother, and which make your feelings here to-day altogether dif- ferent from what they would be in the mere presence of righteousness and generosity. Yes, through all these years you have learned to love him, and the crowded audience gathered in this church this afternoon, testi- fies how strong are the bonds of gratitude and affection which hold you to his memory. The stream of his influence has gone forth, not only in this church, but throughout this city; yea, beyond this city, for throughout the whole land there are those who are thanking God to- day for his servant's character and deeds.
Dear friends, it is worth while to live, if we can live thus. It is not worth while to live, if we merely win this world's gain. It is not worth while to live, if we merely win this world's applause. But to win the love, to merit the affection, and to lift heavenward the lives, of our fellow men, that, indeed, is to make life worth living.
Rev. Matthew B. Riddle, D. D., Prof, in West. Theo. Seminary.
It is my privilege, sad as it is, to speak of the personal life and character of Mr. Thaw. What I have to say is so worthy of being said, that it is a privilege to be here to speak of him. The privilege is mine, I may say, without impropriety, because a half a century ago a num- ber of little boys were taken out of the infant school of the old Third Church, and put in the class of which Mr. Thaw, then a young man in business, but lately having made his profession of faith in Jesus Christ, was the teacher. I was one of those little boys, and ever since, year in and year out, especially in later years, the ties then formed have strengthened ; many of them made more binding from sorrow and grief, common to us both.
A member of his first Sunday School class, privileged to know something of his mind and heart, I can speak not so much of William Thaw the philanthropist, but as of him whose place in some of our lives can never be filled ; because of what he was, rather than of what he did or gave. Others, I trust, by the blessing of God, may take up the work that he did ; there is money enough in the pockets of Chris- tian men in Pittsburgh, to do a dozen times as much for the community as even Mr. Thaw did, but for many of us there never will be another friend like this one.
Now what made this man what he was? Allusion has been made to his Christian character, and his character for philanthropy; but, O my friends, some of you comparative strangers to him, do not have the impression that this man was merely one who, having obtained wealth in some easy manner, was, sometimes from impulse and at other times to avoid trouble, ready to dispense his charities. Not so. Mr. Thaw was one of the greatest men I ever knew. Intellectually one of the greatest, and I think I have met some men that have been reputed very great in this world. His was a magnificent intellect, and if he had died penniless, his death would have taken out of Pittsburgh what has been for me the greatest intellectual stimulus. I say that with reason, because it may be forgotten. Had he turned his attention to other ends, he would still have been renowned as great in those direc- tions. His life was a testimony to the fact that it is not necessary that a man who accumulates wealth shall forget to cultivate himself. Of keen intellectual perceptions, excellent judgment, of rare facility and
28
also felicity in speech, Mr. Thaw might have achieved great success in the scientific world, and I think even more in the literary world. To hear him talk, when he was free from ordinary cares, and allowed him- self to speak of the thoughts that lay deeper in his mind and nearer to his heart, was a great privilege. His sentences came out with the pre- cision that belonged to a master workman in the use of human speech. His letters are fit to preserve as literary productions. And this is the man that we mourn to-day, a man of marked individuality, commanding intellect and rare versatility ; a man who would hear the tale of distress any one brought him, and, turning from the act of supplying the needy, would begin to talk about the last theory of the origin of matter, the last discussion in regard to some profound philosophical or theological question ; whose taste never was obliterated by all his contact with this busy world, or by all his success. He said to me at his own door one day, "They talk about men owning millions; it is too often the mill- ions that own the man." But I can say for him, they never owned Mr. Thaw. He was always larger than his money, which is not true of every man; larger, because there was in him not only this magnificent intellectual furniture, but there was a heart as tender as a woman's ; at times as sentimental as a school-girl's. Those who knew him well remember how this manifested itself, in the flash of his eye, turning to some memory of the past, recalling it with that wonderful fondness of his for local association and olden times, showing that he was fresh as a child in his recollection, and that the heart behind that eye was not hardened at all by the contact and the competition of this busy world of ours, but remained to the last, tender and true as it was in the first. Then the forcibleness of his character, as manifested at the ready and effective action which followed his accurate judgment and rapid de- cision. He was like the shadow of a great rock in a weary land to multitudes of people, because of his personal character.
So, my dear friends, we are gathered here to mourn. Those of you who knew only the more public side of his character, should re- member that there is a loss to some nearest and dearest to him, that cannot be measured. The husband is gone, the father is gone, the true intimate friend is gone, the man that was such a comfort because he was William Thaw, because of what he was in our lives. Those of us who are getting older will never have the loss made up. With humble
29
gratitude to God for all the natural basis of such a character, we recog- nize that this was what grace had to work upon. Only out of such natural material does God's grace in Christ make such a man, such a worker for good to his kind, such a Christian hero in one sense; for the sacrifice he made of his time has always seemed to me more heroic than the free giving of his means. We shall soon pass to the contempla- tion of his religious life, and in the guidance of his pastor, to learn how we should be thankful that the Lord God turned such a hand and heart to his own service, brought him early to the recognition of his position towards Jesus Christ, his dependence upon him, and kept him there so long and with such blessing.
One word in closing I will say, which will be fully understood by a narrowing circle of friends present in this mourning assembly. The first pastor of this church, in his later years, was sometimes subject to great despondency, and on one such occasion, in talking of his past life, he said, " Well, no man's life can be a failure, if he has had the privilege of helping to train the character of such a man as William Thaw."
Rev. E. P. Cowan, D. D., Third Presbyterian Church.
We are all here this afternoon, my friends, to share each with the other a common loss ; to bear each with the other a common burden. In oneway or another the life of this good man whom God has taken to himself, has touched and influenced each one of our lives, and in touch- ing them has drawn us toward him and bound us to him, so that when we realize that he has been called away, we find our hearts bleeding and torn, because these ties are sundered and these cords are snapped. When we call to mind all the places where he has been seen these many years — the home, the office, the church — and think that these places shall know him no more forever, then we feel surely that something has gone out of our lives, and that neither the family, nor the church, nor the community, or life itself, will ever be to us just the same. But to dwell on his virtues is only to magnify our own loss; to speak of the rare qualities of mind and heart with which his Creator endowed him is only to open up the more keenly and vividly to us the extent of our own bereavement. I think I can say that outside the circle of his nearest relatives and dear ones, there could be no more sincere mourner than the one who is now speaking to you. In the church that he loved
30
and over which God has placed me as pastor, I found him to be an almost incalculable power for good. He was always in his place if his health permitted, and he was not out of the city. He was always ready — more than ready — to bear his share, and I have often thought, more than his share, of the burdens. He was always all that any pastor could wish a man to be to him in his work. So I say there are those to whom this loss comes with greater force and power, but there is no one who mourns his departure more sincerely, more keenly than his pastor.
But then, dear friends, shall we in the midst of our grief and sorrow lose sight of the memory of this magnificent life? Shall our tears blind us to the infinite goodness of God? Shall we not here in this house — and where better? — shall we not here seek for some consolation, some comfort that shall help us, that shall cheer us, that shall in some way bind up our broken hearts, and enable us to look up to God and say, Thy will be done? I think there are some things for which we should be thankful to-day as well as things for which we should mourn.
We should be thankful to God for the very life of this man. The world has been made brighter by his smiles. Misery and sorrow have been lessened by his ministrations and benefactions. No human being knows to what extent. God only knows. But we know that there is less sorrow in the world for his having lived, and the world has been made better by his example. Now when we think of such a life we can see that the only thing to be sorry for is, that it is over ; but this must not keep us from thanking God that there was such a life, and that through it blessed influences have been set in motion that shall continue and multiply for years to come, and that, though he who lived this life now rests from his labors, his works shall follow him. Let us know and be thankful to-day for the truth that he, by living as he did, has reared for himself a monument more enduring than brass, and that
"With us his name shall live
Through long succeeding years, Embalmed with all our hearts can give, Our praises and our tears."
Not only let us thank God this afternoon that He gave this life to the world, but let us thank God that He spared William Thaw to live
31
three score years and ten. God might have taken him away in the strength and prime of his manhood. True, God might have let him live longer than He did, but let us not lose sight of the fact that God let him live out the allotted length of man's earthly existence. "The days of our years are three score years and ten, and if by reason of strength they be four score, yet is their strength labor and sorrow, for it is soon cut off and we fly away." Let us be satisfied that God knows best. Let us be duly thankful that He spared him to the world as long as He did.
Then there is another thought that should comfort us; I know it already comforts the hearts of some. I know that some loving ones who were wondering at the strange Providence of God when the shock first came, are beginning to see through the mists and darkness, and understand better, and are now thanking God for some things that they did not see at the beginning. We may have thought it strange that God should allow him to die in a foreign land. We may, some of us, have had the idea that, stricken with disease, he was driven from his home in search of health. Let us correct this thought. His going from his native land was but the carrying out of a long cherished desire. He would have gone anyhow, had he not been visited at all with his recent sickness. This, instead of being the cause of his going, was a hindrance that delayed his departure for awhile. Soon after he had gone upon his journey his pains all left him, and in health he was almost rejuvenated. I had the privilege of reading some of the letters that he wrote home to his family, and there was not a letter but that breathed the spirit of a man buoyant and hopeful and glad, and satisfied that he had gone. In his latest letters he said, " I have not felt stronger for years." His spirit was always young, but with the return of health he seemed indeed to be renewing his youth. A combination of untoward influences, apart from his former troubles, came together in the Providence of God, and ended his earthly career. They might have come sooner; they might have come later; they might have come here; they did come yonder. It was God's way; it was God's will. God knows. God reigns. And when it came time for God to claim his servant, let us be thankful that He did not call him to go through any long, painful, and sorrowful experiences in mind or body. His last illness was not
32
long. His sufferings were not extreme. His mind was at peace. Almost in a moment he was absent from the body, and then we know he was present with his Lord. And so, dear friends, we have reason to be thankful — those of us who loved him, and who love him still — that there are some bright lights even in this darkness; that there is something to comfort our hearts, even in the way in which God took him, strange and mysterious as it seemed at first. The one thing, I repeat, and the only thing that weighs on our hearts, is — that God has taken him from us. While we mourn over this, may we not still, through His help, call on our souls to bless God, who ordereth all things aright, who doeth all things well?
There is another thought, that ought greatly to assuage our grief. It is that this man whom God reared, and whom God spared, and whom God guided and watched over in this world, was one of those chosen ones, for whom God has something better in the world to come. The steps of all good men in this world are ordered by the Lord, and as we follow them in thought out of this life, we call to mind the inspired words of the Apostle, that we are not to be ignorant concerning them that sleep ; that we sorrow not as others who have no hope. If I were speculating concerning the other world and the probabilities of immortality, independent of any revelation, I should say that if any man ever reached up and grasped immortality because it was possible to the great and strong, William Thaw reached it, and grasped it; or if some one should tell me that only those who are pure and good, and love their fellow men should reach it, still I should say he reached it; or if, again, I am pointed to the Word of God, where I find written in unmistakable lines that the blood of Jesus Christ alone cleanseth from all sin, I still would say that William Thaw reached and now wears the crown of an immortal life, for his earthly life was a continued trust in God through the atoning blood of his Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Dear friends, I ask again, have we anything to be sorrowful for, save the one fact that God, in taking him to himself, has for a time separated him from us, and us from him?
In conclusion, as a testimony to the devout and religious life of this servant of God, I have had a fact communicated to me just as I came into the pulpit, that I know will gratify all Christian hearts. It is this, that while on the last Sabbath that he spent in this world, he
5 33
worshiped with God's people at the Episcopal English Church in Paris, and enjoyed the service, and spoke afterwards of the sense of worship he had had with them, on the previous Sabbath he had attended the American Chapel, and finding it to be Communion Sabbath, he joined with them in partaking of the Lord's Supper. It was concerning this service that he said in writing to one of his family, " I remained to the Communion, with much profit to myself." Oh, Christian friends, may we not take this as a last message and lesson, from our departed fellow Christian, and endeavor always like him to seek, enjoy and keep up communion with our dear Lord wherever we are, knowing that as with him, it will be always to us, of great profit to our souls. May God comfort us, and may we comfort one another with these words.
Following these addresses, the pastor offered a prayer, and Rev. Dr. Purves pronounced the benediction, and all was over, and tenderly the body of one so closely identified with the Third Presbyterian Church from its earliest years was carried out and borne to its last resting place, the beautiful Allegheny Cemetery, whose interests he had guarded so closely, and in the improvement of which he had taken such delight.
34
gin U&Umartcmt*
[ Western University of Pennsylvania.']
Whereas, It has pleased God to take from us by the hand of death, Mr. William Thaw, an esteemed and valued member of this Board ; therefore,
Resolved, That we place upon record this minute in regard to one who in this life was such an helpful and generous friend, and even in death was mindful of the institution committed to our care.
Mr. Thaw was richly endowed with varied and remarkable gifts. He possessed unusual powers of discernment, sound judgment and rare executive ability, which enabled him to prosecute with phenomenal success, the various enterprises in which he engaged, and won for him ample means, as well as a high and honorable position in the business community. He was by nature generous ; and this inherent disposi- tion, sanctified by Divine Grace, made him keenly alive to the appeals of the suffering and the unfortunate. In his. daily experience he found it more blessed to give than to receive. Realizing that wealth was a trust committed to him by his Creator, his life was characterized by the most liberal and wide-spread philanthropy. Every enterprise cal- culated to advance the interests of religion, to elevate and purify human society, to widen and improve the sphere of human knowledge, to re- lieve the unfortunate, or to mitigate suffering, found in him an ener- getic and munificent benefactor.
From the time he became a trustee of the University, more than twenty-eight years ago, until the day of his death, he was constantly active and liberal in promoting its welfare. Amid his many cares and anxieties, and the ceaseless demands upon his time and attention, he was seldom absent from our meetings. To the University he gave freely of his time, of his thought, and of his means ; and it is only just to say that but for his earnest efforts, his wise counsel, his unfailing
35
liberality, it would not have attained its present prosperity, or have the bright prospects of future usefulness now opening so hopefully before it. In the death of Mr. Thaw our country has lost an honorable and patriotic citizen ; our community an honorable, enterprising and useful member; our religious and charitable institutions an interested, unfail- ing and generous friend ; the University a wise counselor and liberal supporter; and the cause of science one of its most zealous and unself- ish benefactors.
Resolved, That we tender to his bereaved family our most sincere and respectful sympathy, commending them in their great sorrow to Him who has promised to be a husband to the widow and a father to the fatherless.
William Bake well, Chairman, John G. Brown, Cortlandt Whitehead, John Harper, R. B. Carnahan,
Reuben Miller, M. B. Goff,
Committee.
Unanimously adopted by the Board of Trustees of the Western University of Pennsylvania, October 28th, 1889.
James B. Scott, President, Joseph F. Griggs, Secretary.
[Minutes adopted September 11th, 1S89, by the Board of Directors of the Pennsylvania Railroad Co/npany.~\
I hereby certify that the following is a true and correct extract from the minutes, of action had at a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, held at the office of the Com- pany, in the city of Philadelphia, on the 11th day of September, 1889, namely :
The President announced to the Board the death of their late associate, William Thaw, in the city of Paris, on Saturday, the 17th of August last, and stated that Mr. Thaw's life-long connection with the transportation interests of the country, and his intimate association for
36
nearly forty years with the lines controlled by this Company, made it eminently proper that a suitable record thereof should be made upon the minutes.
Mr. Thaw was elected a member of this Board February 9th, 1881 ; but had been since 1871 a member of the Board and Vice Presi- dent of the Pennsylvania Company and the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati & St. Louis Railway Company, and other companies controlled west of Pittsburgh, and before the organization of the Pennsylvania Company, had been one of the promoters of the Union and National Lines, the first freight organizations to furnish through service to shippers, and facilitate and render effective the movement by rail of interstate com- merce. Before the incorporation of the Pennsylvania Railroad Com- pany, Mr. Thaw had been prominently identified with the steamboat lines on the western rivers, and with the canals that, in connection with the other State Works between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, formed the important avenues for traffic between Philadelphia and the western cities. Upon the opening of the Pennsylvania Railroad to Pittsburgh, he became one of its agents in charge of the transfer of freight at that point, and rendered most valuable service until the through rail con- nections were completed.
It has only been within the last year that the condition of his health interfered with the performance of his official duties. During his entire connection with the interests of the Company, his sound judgment, ripe experience, and quick perception rendered him one of its most valued and trusted counselors, while his sterling integ- rity and genial disposition won the confidence and affection of his associates. It was hoped that a trip abroad would be of permanent service to him, but a sudden attack of illness in Paris soon terminated fatally, and in his seventy-first year he reached the end of a more than ordinarily active and useful life.
The Board directed that the foregoing record be made as a brief tribute to their late associate, and an expression of the deep sorrow with which the news of his death had been received, and also that a copy of the same, duly certified, should be transmitted to the family of the deceased.
Attest :
Jno. C. Simms, Jr., 37 Secretary.
[Pennsylvania Compan r.]
I hereby certify the following to be a true and correct extract from the minutes, showing action had at a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Pennsylvania Company, held in the city of Philadelphia, on Wednesday, September 11th, 1889, relative to the death of William Thaw, namely :
The President announced to the Board the death of their late associate, William Thaw, in the city of Paris, France, on Saturday, the 17th of August last, and stated that Mr. Thaw's life-long connection with the transportation interests of the country, and the prominent part taken by him in the organization of this Company, and the con- duct of its affairs from the date of its charter until his death, made it eminently proper that a suitable record thereof be made upon the minutes.
Mr. Thaw's term as a Director of this Company began at the first meeting of its stockholders, held June 1st, 1870, and continued until his death. On June 1st, 1870, he was elected by the Directors as its first President. He was elected Vice President January 20th, 1871, and held that office until his death. He has been this Company's chief financial officer since its organization. During all these years his emi- nent abilities were devoted to shaping the policy of the Company, his singularly bright mind enabling him to solve important problems quickly and correctly, and thus rendering him an invaluable aid in car- rying to a successful conclusion projects vital to the Company's inter- ests. His great heart endeared him to all, but to none more than those who were associated with him in his business life, who were the daily wit- nesses of his acts of charity, his readiness to help the worthy who sought his aid, and who, one and all, are indebted to him personally for acts of kindness done to them, in one way or other, during his official career.
Although Mr. Thaw attained last fall the age of seventy years, still at that time his natural vigor was such as to indicate many more years of active life. He was taken ill, however, in February of this year, and was confined to his house for three months, after which he recovered his strength, in a measure, and was able to perform his
38
official duties. He sailed for Europe July 10th last, with the hope of complete recovery, but was stricken with sudden illness in Paris, and died on August 17th.
In directing that the foregoing record be made, the members of this Board desire at the same time to express their extreme sorrow at the loss of such a valued associate and friend. The Secretary was instructed to transmit a copy of the foregoing minute to the family of the deceased.
Attest :
S. B. Liggett,
Secretary.
[Pittsburgh, Cincinnati & St. Louis Railway Company 7\
I hereby certify the following to be a true and correct extract from the minutes, showing action had at a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati & St. Louis Railway Company, held in the city of Philadelphia, on Wednesday, September 11th, 1889, relative to the death of William Thaw, namely :
The President announced to the Board the death of their late associate, William Thaw, in the city of Paris, France, on Saturday, the 17th of August last, and stated that Mr. Thaw's life-long connection with the transportation interests of the country, and the prominent part taken by him in the conduct of this Company's affairs, made it emi- nently proper that a suitable record thereof should be made upon the minutes.
Mr. Thaw was first elected a Director in February, 1871, and so continued until his death. He was Vice President of the Company from March 7th, 1871, to the close of his life, serving during the same period as its chief financial officer. During all these years his eminent abilities were devoted to shaping the policy of the Company, his singu- larly bright mind enabling him to solve important problems quickly and correctly, and thus rendering him an invaluable aid in carrying to a successful conclusion projects vital to the Company's interests. His great heart endeared him to all, but to none more than those who were associated with him in his business life, who were the daily witnesses
39
of his acts of charity, his readiness to help the worthy who sought his aid, and who, one and all, are indebted to him personally for acts of kindness done to them, in one way or other, during his official career.
Although Mr. Thaw attained last fall the age of seventy years, still at that time his natural vigor was such as to indicate many more years of active life. He was taken ill, however, in February of this year, and was confined to his house for three months, after which he recovered his strength, in a measure, and was able to perform his official duties. He sailed for Europe July 10th last, with the hope of complete recovery, but was stricken with sudden illness in Paris, and died on August 17th.
In directing that the foregoing record be made, the members of
this Board desire at the same time to express their extreme sorrow at
the loss of such a valued associate and friend. The Secretary was
instructed to transmit a copy of the foregoing minute to the family of
the deceased.
Attest :
S. B. Liggett,
Secretary.
[ Chicago, St. Louis d- Pittsburgh Railroad Co?npany7\
I hereby certify the following to be a true and correct extract from the minutes, showing action had at a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Chicago, St. Louis & Pittsburgh Railroad Company, held in the city of Philadelphia, on Wednesday, September 11th, 1889, relative to the death of William Thaw, namely:
The President announced to the Board the death of their late associate, William Thaw, in the city of Paris, France, on Saturday, the 17th of August last, and stated that Mr. Thaw's life-long connection with the transportation interests of the country, and the prominent part taken by him in the conduct of this Company's affairs, made it emi- nently proper that a suitable record thereof should be made upon the minutes.
Mr. Thaw was first elected a Director and Vice President in April, 1884, and so continued until his death, serving during the same period
40
as its chief financial officer. During these years his eminent abilities were devoted to shaping the policy of the Company, his singularly bright mind enabling him to solve important problems quickly and correctly, and thus rendering him an invaluable aid in carrying to a successful conclusion projects vital to the Company's interests. His great heart endeared him to all, but to none more than those who were associated with him in his business life, who were the daily witnesses of his acts of charity, his readiness to help the worthy who sought his aid, and who, one and all, are indebted to him personally for acts of kindness done to them, in one way or other, during his official career.
Although Mr. Thaw attained last fall the age of seventy years, still at that time his natural vigor was such as to indicate many more years of active life. He was taken ill, however, in February of this year, and was confined to his house for three months, after which he recovered his strength, in a measure, and was able to perform his official duties. He sailed for Europe July 10th last, with the hope of complete recovery, but was stricken with sudden illness in Paris, and died on August 17th.
In directing that the foregoing record be made, the members of this Board desire at the same time to express their extreme sorrow at the loss of such a valued associate and friend. The Secretary was instructed to transmit a copy of the foregoing minute to the family of the deceased.
Attest :
S. B. Liggett,
Secretary.
[Minute adopted at a meeting of the Board of Directors, held at
the Office of the International Navigation Company,
Philadelphia, February 5th, 1890.]
At a meeting of the Board, held this date, the President announced that William Thaw, Esq., one of their members, had died, after a brief illness, in the city of Paris, France, on August 17th, 1889 ; whereupon, on motion, it was ordered that the following be spread upon the minutes of the Board:
6 41
It is with deep regret and profound sorrow that this Board learns of the death of its late fellow member, William Thaw, Esq. Mr. Thaw's association with the affairs of this Company commenced with its organization in May, 1871. he having been one of the charter mem- bers of the Board. The Company was therefore fortunate, at its very inception, in having Mr. Thaw in its counsels. His standing as one of the foremost managers of transportation interests in this country, his rare abilities as an organizer of corporate service, his various and com- plete business experiences, made his counsel, personal acts and aid, of the highest value. Every substantial progress and ultimate success in the administration of the affairs of this Company are associated with his efforts and name. Mr. Thaw's sterling integrity and personal vir- tues endeared him to his associates. He was an earnest, true friend, wise and kindly in counsel, charitable in judgments, quick and kindly in his sympathies for all who appealed to him. We are now to miss this valued business associate and personal companion and friend always, but we treasure his memory forever.
Attest :
J. E. HOAVELL,
Secretary pro tern.
\_Extracts from Proceedings of American Society of Civil Engineers 07i the death of William Thazv.~\
By the death, at the city of Paris, on August 17th, 1889, of William Thaw, Fellow of this Society, there passed away in the prime of his usefulness, a noble specimen of the type of man, who, without being a member of the profession, is such as the profession delights to honor. Mr. Thaw was identified with the transportation interests of this country in a remarkable manner, being engaged, when in his seventeenth year, in the forwarding business as a clerk, and in his twenty-second year having, in connection with Thomas S. Clarke, formed the firm of Clarke & Thaw, canal and steamboat owners and transporters, which firm continued in business until 1855. At the time of his death Mr. Thaw was Second Vice President of the Penn- sylvania Company, controlling the Pennsylvania lines west of Pitts-
42
burgh, so that an active business life of almost fifty years was spent in developing the business transportation from a humble beginning on the Pennsylvania Canal to this magnificent fruition in the Pennsyl- vania Railroad as it is to-day.
It was a remarkable fact, that within the space of less than half of Mr. Thaw's life he saw the rise, the success and the fall of the system of transportation used on the Pennsylvania Canal and the Portage Rail- road, a system which, when in the height of its usefulness, seemed to leave nothing more to be desired.
Mr. Thaw was a man of great public spirit, and he took an active interest in all movements to advance or likely to elevate his fellow men. His immense fortune was most worthily used in both public and pri- vate beneficence, but Mr. Thaw was a philanthropist at heart, and one who greatly preferred to bestow his gifts in such a manner that his left hand would not know what his right hand did. His gifts to the Western University of Pennsylvania amounted to between three hundred and four hundred thousand dollars, while his charitable donations, from first to last, must have amounted to millions. The expedition made to Mount Whitney, in Southern California, by Professor Langley, from which such admirable scientific results were obtained, was largely possible through the help of Mr. Thaw, who furnished the necessary and delicate apparatus for the expedition.
Mr. Thaw was a great reader, and was remarkably well informed upon a large range of subjects. He was also a good listener, and was always glad to receive information of value from any person, no matter how humble his position. Though impetuous in temperament and persistent in the assertion of his convictions, he was always willing to change his views when convinced they were wrong ; but whoever assumed to set him right must be well prepared on the question for discussion, for Mr. Thaw had a rare command of facts and language, and always delivered himself with earnestness, his reasoning being based on his moral convictions of right and duty, and never on mere speculations, such as policy or expediency might suggest. In the social walks of life he was all that kindness could require or courtesy could expect, buoyant in disposition, mild and gentle in his intercourse with his fellow men, and strictly upright in all his dealings. He was well entitled to the high rank which he had attained; his character in
43
all its elements was beyond reproach and his reputation without a stain. His large benefactions, his sympathy for the sick and suffering and those whose calamities have made their lives bitter and full of sorrow, and his constant efforts for the advance of projects of a humane char- acter, have won for him the admiration and love of his fellow citizens. He has shown how wealth may be made to benefit the many, and in a plain, unassuming way, has passed through life, and will long be remembered for his good deeds.
Mr. Thaw became a Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers August 30th, 1871, and he was also a subscriber to its building fund. He was interested in all branches of science, and par- ticularly in those pertaining to the transportation interests, so that he was always willing to aid in any project for the advancement of engineering or in the interest of engineers.
[ Grand Army7\
At a meeting of the Executive Committee of the Grand Army Posts of Allegheny County, Pa., held August 24, 1889, the following resolutions were unanimously adopted:
By the death of William Thaw, this community mourns the loss of a Christian gentleman and a public spirited citizen, who stood fore- most in the ranks of this city's business men, a philanthropist in the true sense, and a humanitarian to whom the appeals of the dis- tressed were not made in vain, always ready to assist the deserving and friendless, his life was passed in unostentatious and true charities. The Grand Army of the Republic in general, and of this vicinity in par- ticular, has lost a steadfast friend and supporter, whose liberality made comfortable the journey of many a worthy and unfortunate old comrade, and brought joy to the house of mourning of the widow and orphan. His generosity enabled us to practically maintain the great purpose of our Order, assisted us materially in the success of our public occasions
44
of Memorial, and Grand Array days, and also of our exhibitions and entertainments for the benefit of our charity fund.
Resolved, That we most deeply deplore his death, which to us is an irreparable loss, and to the public a calamity.
To the bereaved family we tender our sincere sympathy, trusting the Divine Master will sustain them in their affliction.
Resolved, That this minute and resolutions be spread upon the records, and a copy transmitted to the family of the deceased.
W. H. Lambert, Thos. G. Sample, N. J. Patterson,
Committee.
[Honoring a Benefactor. The Pittsburgh Press Club takes action on William Thaw s death.']
A special meeting of the Press Club was held yesterday afternoon to take action on the death of William Thaw, who was one of the asso- ciate members of that organization. President Connelly presided and announced the object of the meeting. G. F. Muller, E. S. Morrow and George H. Welshons were appointed a Committee on Resolutions, and prepared the following :
Whereas, It has pleased an all-wise Providence to remove from the world William Thaw, a life associate member of this Club ; there- fore, be it
Resolved, That we express our sincere and heartfelt sorrow at the death of one whose life was rich in good deeds, whose example was worthy of all imitation and whose own life is his best monument : further,
Resolved, That a Committee of the Pittsburgh Press Club be appointed to be present at the funeral.
45
[ Tribute to the Dead of 1889, of the Board of Corporators of the Allegheny Cemetery 7\
The report of last year contained the statement that no death had occurred in either the Board of Directors or Corporators, and conse- quently no vacancy existed. To-day, the conditions are sadly reversed. In quick succession, three of our number whose names were familiar and loved in Pittsburgh households were taken from the roll of incor- porators and managers of Allegheny Cemetery, and their loss was felt and mourned not less by every charitable and benevolent enterprise existing in our cities.
The volume of spontaneous tributes from the press, and from the varied institutions with which they had been connected, attested the affectionate regard and high honor in which they were held. In each instance the allotted space of life had been exceeded, and it was given to them to see the marvellous growth and prosperity of the cities to which they had so largely contributed. After fulfilling so well life's destiny, and leaving the fragrance of their integrity, benevolence, and good will to men, they sleep peacefully in the beautiful spot to which they had given much of their living care and thought.
The first one to whom the summons came to higher service was William Thaw, born in Pittsburgh, October, 1818. He was educated in the Western University, and after a short preliminary business training, he engaged in the forwarding and commission business, and in 1840 the historic firm of Clarke & Thaw was formed, which con- tinued until 1855, finally issuing in the Star Union Line.
Mr. Thaw was intimately connected with the history, wonder- ful growth, and remarkable changes, in the methods of transportation, especially those affecting Pittsburgh. He followed with keenest inter- est all the gradations from the Connestoga wagon, superseded by the canal boats, and they in turn by railway cars.
In all these evolutions, his resolute will, sagacity and wonderful ability were important factors, and the great railway systems owe much of their present perfection to his brilliant intellect and far-seeing wis- dom. Possessed of a wonderfully acute and observant mind, his impetuous temperament well under control, a wise caution, and sound
46
judgment gave to his business career a brilliancy and efficiency attained by few.
To his Alma Mater, the Western University, he ever evinced the most generous interest, and any effort in the direction of literary and scientific advancement met with his certain and abundant sympathy and support. His splendid business achievements and intellectual endowments may be unrecognized or forgotten in the passage of years, but the characteristic which made William Thaw peerless among his fellows and enshrined his memory in every heart, is imperishable, namely, his warm living love for his fellow men, his kindling eye, his ready tear, his almost divine benevolence, flowed unstintedly and unos- tentatiously to every class and condition, possibly sometimes to the undeserving ; in this he touched most closely the divine attribute. His sympathetic nature was ever young and ever responsive. Though age and disease were inevitable, nothing could arrest this outflow of helpful compassion and sympathy for the suffering and needy, except the hand of death.
His heart was kept young, and in touch with all the world, by his wonderful interest in everything about him. Those who enjoyed his friendship can easily recall his almost boyish enthusiasm, his love for the beautiful in nature and art, his charming reminiscences of Pittsburgh's early history, his nobility of nature, having room in his great heart for every creed, color, and condition.
To attempt to outline such a life, or picture the loss to his family, city, country, or the world at large, would be an impossible task, nor are words of eulogy needed. Generations must pass away ere the name of Pittsburgh's cherished and most noble son, William Thaw, can be forgotten. He was entrusted with large means, and grandly did he administer the trust. No worthy cause appealed to him in vain. To the church of his choice, his gifts were unostentatious, but magnificent ; to the regularly authorized channels he contributed steadily, thence blessing the debased and neglected in our own land, and giving light to thousands in the far off heathen world. He was a cosmopolitan in the finest sense ; his sympathies had a world-wide field, and when the cable flashed that unutterably sad message, it was as if a public calamity had befallen us. He died in Paris, France, August, 1889. Loving and reverent hands brought him home, and laid him beside his
47
loved ones in this beautiful place he had cared for with so much watchful solicitude. Surely he sleeps well.
Almost the last public meeting he attended before his trip in search of health, was the meeting of the Corporators of Allegheny Cemetery, held June 29th, in the chapel of the new gateway. His earnest words and evident jealous guardianship of the seclusion and sanctity of the place, and his warm approval of plans to prevent encroachment upon these grounds in the years to come, were proofs that, amid all the important and incessant demands made upon his time, he always reserved a portion in which to give his aid and valuable co-operation.
The Board of Corporators desire, then, unitedly, and with sincere and saddened hearts, to lay this tribute upon the grave of one whom it was a privilege to know and love in life, and equally our sacred privi- lege, while we shall always mourn his loss, to preserve as a legacy of rare value, the memory of his noble life.
[/;/ Memory of William Thazv. Resolutions adopted by the Board of
Managers of the Allegheny Cemetery, at a meeting held
Friday, October 4th, 1889.~]
The members of this Board, with a profound sense of the loss which they have suffered in the death of Mr. William Thaw, and with grateful recollections of the intercourse which they have enjoyed with him through so many years, desire to place on record this memorial, that those who come after him in the management of this corporation may know how he was esteemed as a man, and loved as a friend.
In the meetings of the Board he was one to whom we instinctively turned for counsel and advice. His comprehension of a business prob- lem was unusually quick. His decision was almost as rapid, and his judgment was rarely at fault. He was a model business man and gave to this Company his heartiest services. To him it was no more a duty than a labor of love to guard and protect the City of the Dead, whose silent inhabitants were beyond caring for themselves.
48
He loved Allegheny Cemetery, and we believe he watched and guarded its interests with a more jealous care than he gave to any other business committed to him. For it, he was earnest, active, watchful j jealous of any infringement upon its rights, and anxious to throw around it every protection which could shelter it in years to come. To perpetuate, to beautify, and to adorn this silent home of the dead, he gave the best thoughts of his head and heart, and although his last days were spent in a foreign land, yet loving hands have borne him back and reverently laid him in the spot which he himself had prepared. No citizen more worthy has been carried within its gates.
But it is as a friend we shall best love to think of him. The affection which he called forth was as spontaneous as the admiration he excited, as a man. He was the incarnation of sympathy. He recog- nized a want before it was expressed, and gave relief before it was asked. His heart was great enough to encircle the world, and his bounty fell like the dew of heaven in silent blessings upon the poor and distressed of every land.
Charles J. Clarke,
Attest : President.
James R. Speer,
Secretary.
[The Union Veteran Legion ]
"The members of Encampment No. 1, Union Veteran Legion, de- sire to unite with their fellow citizens in paying tribute to the memory of the late William Thaw.
"He was born in Pittsburgh. His whole life was spent here. From early manhood he was identified with Pittsburgh's growth and advancement. His various business interests brought him in contact with people in every condition in life, and he secured and retained the confidence and esteem of all. By his generous recognition of worth in others many attained success, whose merits and genius might, other- wise, never have been considered.
"During the late war no one in this patriotic community contrib- uted more liberally, or more willingly, to the Union cause. He also made
7 49
a reality the pledge that while the soldier was at the front his family should not want. The widow and orphan, the maimed and unfortunate old soldier, all these profited by his benefactions.
"His public spirit, his unostentatious giving, his genuine Christi- anity, were characteristics of broad philanthropy and true greatness. He was indeed Pittsburgh's first citizen, and we shall not soon look upon his like.
" To his family and friends we tender our sincere sympathy in their great bereavement, but especially to Mrs. Thaw, whose brothers, our comrades, one of whom fills an unknown grave, gave their lives that constitutional authority might be maintained, and equal rights be secured to all. We honor the memory of William Thaw."
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APPENDIX.
This Memoir of Mr. Thaw, prepared by her who, for over a score of years, stood nearest to him, is intended more for the preserva- tion of much that has already been published, than for the introduction of any new matter. The aim throughout has been to make it as im- personal as possible, and therefore it was not in the thought of the compiler to have any letters introduced. Later consideration, how- ever, shows how incomplete it would be without a few of his own letters, illustrative of some of the interests which claimed his at- tention, as well as his own clear, quick grasp of the questions sub- mitted, and manner of dealing with each. The first we give might stand as a sample of many. If the names of those referred to were given, they would be immediately recognized.
Pittsburgh, June 14, 1882.
" Dear Mr. :
In reply to your note, I would say that it would please me to have you propose unconditionally, except as to time of leaving you, to
provide for Mr. 's visit to Europe, and his outlay while prosecuting
study there, for a year — giving him means to avail of the very best advantages for such studies. If he will go, I shall be glad to meet him several times in the interval, informally, for mutual acquaintance.
I take such satisfaction in making exceptional endowment find its way to its proper development, without waste of power upon details along its way, that my interest in this matter is its own compensation ;
while I indulge in such interventions so often, that Mr. need not
feel under any personal obligation to me, beyond making such good use of his opportunities as will qualify him for high class original research, men really completely endowed for which are, I know, very rare."
It was thus he removed obstacles, and pushed forward those capable of reaching high positions in life, while keeping himself quite out of
51
sight. Where could more disinterested motives be found than those given here? The language would almost imply he was receiving, rather than conferrins: a favor.
The next will be of interest mainly as showing the kind of read- ing he would take up for relaxation after a day of care. Instead of turning to light literature, requiring but little thought, his habit was, as he expressed it, to "bend the mind in another direction," and so refresh himself by changing the current of thought. It would scarcely be possible to compress more into words, than is done in this note, which was fastened to the magazines referred to. It was a method he frequently used for calling the attention of different members of his family to what had especially interested him.
" I want Will, Ben, and W. H. Thompson, to read, first the Francis Walker article on Socialism in the Scribner, and get into their minds the significance of this drift, synthetically, towards a more practical recognition of the rights of humanity. Then read the article in Political Science Quarterly, on Rodbertus, the hitherto unknown Socrates of philosophical socialism, and there get the theory analytically set forth of a perfect community. It is a beautiful theory — only, it substitutes the State to perform, mechanically, what the Christian religion, fully carried out, would impel individuals, families and communities to ac- complish, as far as the fact of a perverted and criminal human nature will ever permit. As Francis Murphy says of Temperance: 'If law could save the people, Moses would have been the Christ.' The same fallacy underlies the beautiful and profound theories of Rodbertus, who was not, you will see, a modern socialist in his method. He wanted live hundred years to do it, without injury to a single good thing, now existing, in society among men. I send these books, and write this note because you will all probably outlive me long enough to see the fur- ther development of these social (in a technical sense) forces, and I would like you now to be informing yourselves intelligently and thoroughly on both, or all, sides of these questions, as part of your equipment for your own work in the world.
52
The following extracts are from letters to an old friend, some years his senior. To such workers Mr. Thaw's great heart of sympathy was ever open, delighting in making their summer vacations bright by pro- viding the means for visits to seaside or mountains, and doing this while he himself rarely ceased his own arduous labor. He seemed to take his own holidays and recreation thus — by proxy — finding more pleasure in sending others than in going himself.
[Extracts from letters to Dr. Tuttle, President of Wabash College]
Pittsburgh, December 3d, 1883.
" I hope you w'll have an enjoyable visit East. Your missing the train by change of time, and the consequent trial of temper, while you bear great anxieties without a sign, is one of those unaccountable things in which my own experience abounds. The miserable little blunders and mishaps, which ought not to happen, as we think, who have con- sumed ourselves in organizing work that should go right every time, and never fail, are just those which overcome us; while great cares and anxieties, in which we feel ourselves to be somewhat helpless factors and sufferers, we accept, as allotted by Providence, and so summon all our powers to endure, and find gain, even in trial and loss. On the whole I do not know but what serenity under provoking, but insignifi- cant, cares and annoyances, is among the highest attainments of both grace and nature; and it certainly has much to do with average daily comfort, ******* You may be sure of my confidence and sympathy always, when you break over, and the deep concern will come to the surface, and seek expression. What a world it is, and what a condition of existence do they accept, who have no higher reli- ance than human wisdom can give them."
Pittsburgh, June 30th, 1884.
" I return, enclosed, the letter of the parents of your student, who lias come to fruitage so early. It must indeed be a great encouragement to you to behold such results. Planting beside all waters, and knowing that the waste of human possibilities is almost as that of the acorns to the oaks, it is an unspeakable satisfaction to see instances like this. Doubtless there are many more than those which come to your knowl-
53
edge, who are, if not in the ministry, in other good and useful callings. * * * But I could wish you might enjoy the comfort and stimulus of such evidence of the value of your work every day in the year."
Pittsburgh, April 3d, 1885. " I return the Japanese English exercise. I think the theory of the unity of the races is vindicated, when a pure blooded descendant of a people, with an authentic history reaching back centuries before Socrates, yet entirely unknown to all the world except China — until Socrates had been buried some seventeen centuries — can thus come to the front, at a bound, as a student of the Greek language. * *
The brief extracts from letters to the Rev. Dr. Kellogg show the interest he felt in the work of this eminent scholar and theologian. The friendship was a warm one, and mutually helpful and stimulating.
\_Extr act from letters to Rev. Di'. S. H. Kellogg.\
Pittsburgh, Pa., April 30th, 1888. " I have to thank you for sending me your article in the Bibliotheca Sacra* It is quite surprising how the whole ground can be gone over in so short a space, and how clearly it is made to appear that your views are scripturally right, first; and next, are not only compatible with, but go to produce and maintain, the highest type of orthodox Christianity.
After all, though, my dear sir, it is the demonstration you make nl' a perfectly courteous and tender handling of opposing views, when your own armory is full of Scripture weapons, and your opponents have invited rough rejoinder, that I most admire; both for its own excellence as a Christian grace, and as an evidence — always weighty with impartial people — of your own profound and serene conviction of the truth of your own argument.
We are all well. I trust you are not quite consuming your own strength and powers, though the work you get through seems wonder- ful to me."
* In the number for April, 1888, on ''Premillennialism; its Relation to Doctrine and Practice."
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Pittsburgh, Pa., October 1st, II " I have read with great satisfaction your interesting letter of the 24th. It would seem indeed that your Hindi work on its own merits has obtained its place, where you hardly expected to place it without a good deal of effort and influence. All this is a pleasant jus- tification of your purpose to revise and re-issue the Grammar, and gives you a place quite enviable among philologists, and of wide and abiding character. I hope your new Bible undertaking may be, as you think, so blended with your pulpit work as to add but little to the strain upon the vital machinery your untiring mind has to employ. If it be so, you may not have risked too much ; but do not be betrayed into a per- manent visual injury, — if you find you have undertaken too much."
Between Mr. Thaw and Professor S. P. Langley, for so many years Director of the Allegheny Observatory, the most intimate friendship existed. This was strengthened by, and indeed grew out of, the rela- tions each bore to that institution, as well as from a similarity of taste and feeling in regard to that special line of scientific work. It will never be known how much time and thought, as well as means, Mr. Thaw gave to this institution, probably the favorite among all his interests. By the joint efforts of these two men, it may safely be said, was the Observatory lifted from a condition of mere existence, into the position it now occupies. The few extracts from his letters, given here, will help to keep alive in the recollection of some, the share that Mr. Thaw had in this developement.
The first refers to the outlay furnished by him for the expedition to Mount Whitney, in addition to the inadequate provision made for it by the United States Government, under whose auspices it was carried out. Professor Brashear refers to this in his letter, which is republished in this volume. It is described more fully in Prof. Langley's large work, uOur New Astronomy."
The note of congratulation, which follows this, speaks for itself. The keen analysis of the elements which make up popular opinion, adds special interest to this letter.
The next refers first to Professor Brashear and his work, and in- dicates the kind of supervision Mr. Thaw exercised over the man and,
55
the work; until, eventually, the prediction there made, was reasonably fulfilled. In the same letter is a reference to the temporary arrangement with the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, made by Mr. Langley. The next was written nearly a year later, when the offer was made, which, if accepted by Mr. Langley, would make it necessary for him to give up the Observatory entirely. One can read between the lines, the struggle between the natural desire on the one hand to hold, for Allegheny, the Director with whom he had worked so long, — and on the other, an unselfish willingness to put all personal feeling aside, and see only the advancement of his friend.
\JLetters to Professor S. P. Langley.~\
Pittsburgh, June 15, 1881. " * * * I fullv realize how much of means, and effort, may go for nothing, in fishing for the fundamental facts of nature, in the thorough manner in which you must do it. So, if this turns out to be a water-haul — I shall be disappointed but not discouraged, nor should von be; though I confess, the labor, exposure and anxiety of your un- dertaking will be enough to make it very hard for you to fail of a high reward of some kind among the results you will reach."
Pittsburgh, Pa., June 10, 1886. " I was much gratified at the information given in your letter of the eighth instant. The Rum ford medal, I take it, falls to you easily, and as a matter of course; but to find your work adequately appreciated in the middle of the Old World, by the dreadfully few capable of sitting in judgment on you, must be a great consolation, while the announcement of that judgment, in such language, in a pub- lication that is the organ of the learned astronomers of learned Germany, settles the question.
"In such matters the ultimate reputation must rest on the dictum of the few who are known to be qualified to judge. Around that will spread the name, as it will be known to the whole world ; until popular recognition comes to eclipse and seemingly to supersede the judgment first given by the experts. What I mean is, that in your walk in life, mere popular appreciation cannot found and establish a name; it may seem to do so, but if it lasts, it is because it is an echo of the higher verdict."
56
Nov. 4th, 1886.
«* * * Just now I have 's work in a very
tentative and plastic shape. * * * He naturally, yet, perhaps, in a very mild way, longs for a commercial success adequate to maintain himself and his work, and to develop his plant and results perma- nently. This is right and must be attained in the end, but for the present, absolute excellence, and scientific perfection, must be sought and established, to do which he must be freely sustained, and yet not allowed to feel dependent. A few years of good health, and he can reach a position to command commercial success by the pre-eminence of his work.
"For yourself, I am glad that without losing you to Allegheny, a door has bten opened for a permanent change in your life, in a direction so much in harmony with your pursuits and wishes, and that will also give you the control of your avenue to the general public and the scientific world. You have achieved enough already to have your results welcomed by the world, but it pleases me to have you where you can give direction yourself, as to your method of reaching the public, instead of having it depend upon official good will."
August 20, 1887.
" I had seen the notice of Professor Baird's death this morning. I think your first care should be for your health ; should you go to New Mexico, it will give you time to hear and consider.
" I could not see my way to oppose your acceptance of the place. As to conditions, I think you could stipulate for the continuance of your special work, or any line of original research you may desire. I have to put the Allegheny Observatory out of my mind when advising you at this crisis. I am concerned that it should remain a fruitful pioneer in human knowledge, but recognize that we all do fade as a leaf, and must expect change in the most stable and useful of the things we care for."
The history of the development, in this city, of the manufacture of instruments of precision, for use in astronomical and physical re- search, second to none in the world, and the upward progress of the man
8 57
whose brain evolved the successive steps by which success was attained, will, some day, no doubt, be written, after the keen intellect and skilled hands are things of the past. Meanwhile it is interesting to read in the extracts from letters which accompanied more substantial encouragement, the strong and steady support given by the man whose memory only remains. This was given at the time when such encouragement was most needed and appreciated.
The first letter was written some time after Mr. Thaw became acquainted with Mr. Brashear. The discovery of the man and his work was a keen delight to one whose interest in such matters deepened as time moved on. We can easily imagine the burst of sunlight such words as these brought with them into the life of one who was so hampered by his surroundings, as to make him almost despair of any real success. Mr. Brashear calls attention to the phrase he puts in italics, when sending the letters for this volume.
[Extracts from letters to Mr. John A. Brashear. .]
" My object would be to give you full opportunity, appliances and
means, to occupy your special powers and gifts, in such work as you
have been doing for the past few years; looking to the production of
the highest class of scientific instruments, and appliances of absolute
precision, so far as that is possible; and with special reference to such
devices as may be in advance of any previously known instruments, to
push forward the frontier of human knowledge."
Notice the beautiful language 1 have taken the liberty to underscore, which I can- not but think occurred to Mr. Thaw at the moment of writing. To me it has become a motto. It made such an impression upon my mind at the time of reading it, that it seems as fresh as if written but yesterday. J. A. b.
The two which follow need no explanation, other than the com- ments Mr. Brashear makes on each.
" My compensation comes to me in the having done somewhat of that which a man with my means ought to do for his kind, with the exceptional satisfaction of having the privilege of giving to the race, so far as mere material means can do it, the labors and results which might otherwise have been delayed or defeated."
One of his characteristic comments on his motive for assisting in scientific and other research. J. A. b.
58
"Nothing must leave your place that is not the best of its kind. Now keep that in mind; I have to write hurriedly, but when I get on the subject of your situation and prospects, and the possibilities of dis- tinction and usefulness now open to you, I feel like guarding you against every form of intrusion, or diversion of your powers, and would keep you, like an athlete, in close training. Tell your wife I hope she will emphasize what I have written."
This letter was written when Mr. Thaw had learned that I gave my time almost every clear evening to show visitors celestial objects with my telescopes. The first sentence is worthy to be written " among the stars," but such sentences are found scat- tered here and there all through his ten years of correspondence. J. A. B.
Pittsburgh, Pa., March 1, 1888.
" I return letters of Trowbridge and Swasey, which are very interesting. Are you sure that color is a mere subjective function of human sense? Is it so any more than is the perception of form, or of any phenomenon whatever, meaning thereby all perceptible things — since we cannot know anything in itself?
"Therefore may not the objective conditions which excite the func- tion of color in the human subject, be themselves communicated to, and be potential in the image of the object, as well as in the object it- self? Therefore, again, is it unphilosophical — I will not say unscien- tific— to try to obtain a photographic image that will retain the power of the photographed object itself, to excite the function of color per- ceptive in the human subject?
"Your successful quick machine work, for Trowbridge, justifies the expectation that you will ere long produce achromatic objectives with similar speed and certainty."
The beautiful discovery of Lippman, while still in its embyronic stage, has clearly demonstrated the correctness of Mr. Thaw's reasoning. I have myself seen the natural colors of an object clearly brought out in two photographs — and the process gives bright hopes of complete success in color photography.
The last sentence of this letter has also been fully realized in our work, but how much we owe to him who stood by us through the struggles along the difficult pathways that have led to success, can only be known when the " frontier of human knowledge " has reached out from the finite to the infinite. J. A. B.
Through the courtesv of the Trustees of the Western University
59
we are permitted to read one letter, written on the eve of his departure for Europe, in 1880. Chancellor Holland, in transmitting the copy of the letter for insertion in this Memoir, writes as follows :
"The statement of Mr. Thaw's views in regard to the re-organiza- tion of the University was, in the main features of its recommenda- tions, adopted by the Committee of Re-organization, and subsequently approved by the Board of Trustees. The standard of the Preparatory Department was first raised, and then finally in 1889 it was altogether discontinued as a part of the University. A thorough re-organization of the Faculty and a complete re-adjustment of methods of instruc- tion was affected, and new buildings for the accommodation of the University were erected upon Observatory Hill. The result has been of such a character as to wholly justify the wisdom of the suggestions contained in Mr. Thaw's letter."
Pittsburgh, April 15th, 1880. Rev. D. R. Kerr. D. D..
Pies' t P. T. Board of Trustees of the Western University of Pennsylvania and of Committee of Eleven on Re-organization.
Dear Sir:
I am grieved to learn that Bishop Kerfoot's engagements will not permit him to act as Chairman, or to serve on the "Committee of Eleven." I earnestly ask you to retain your ex-officio place as Chairman of that Committee, and permit no avoidable delay in its work.
As I am not a member of it, and will be absent a long time after May 1st, I address this to you to give briefly my views upon the present situation of the University, not to ask that any special weight shall be given to them, but simply that the views of the mover of the resolu- tions under which your Committee acts may not be unknown.
The course of the Board in giving the notice provided for by its action in June, 1879, and authorizing your Committee to report a plan of re-organization, leaves it with your Committee to suggest great or little changes, and to be radical or conservative in its recommendations, and imposes no conditions, except that the cost shall come within the probable income of the institution.
I need hardly remind the Committee how groundless is the com- mon report that the recent action of the Board arose out of dissensions
60
between members of the Faculty, or out of any of the minor questions brought before the Board. The duty and necessity of avoiding debts and keeping the Endowment Funds intact was perhaps the immediate and imperative cause for decisive action, but the true reason why the Board faced the painful and anxious duty of re-organizing the Fac- ulty was, that it had gradually, and against long resistance to an unwel- come conviction, been forced to believe that the institution had become so faulty in its methods and results that members could no longer shut their eyes to the fact, nor give further consent by silence. While this is so, no charge of incompetency or neglect is made against the mem- bers of the Faculty. The defects of to-day result from the incompati- bility of the too comprehensive undertakings of the University in its organization and curricula, with the material the community supplied as students. I think that I am not far wrong in saying that the present Faculty and facilities of the University could furnish fair college in- struction for the present total number of students, if they were all reasonably mature, say from sixteen to twenty-two years old, and the studies, the students, and the present teachers were adjusted to each other under moderate but real, college standards and regulations. But this community does not supply such a body of students. Whether so many young men would go from here to colleges elsewhere, if the Uni- versity were all that it ought to be, I cannot say; but, as it stands to- day, we find that in order to gather students the organization of the University reaches down through its Preparatory Department to mere children, and provides for instruction so elementary as to make it a competitor with the common schools, while in its higher departments, (which, if all could be realized that has been attempted, would em- brace schools of law, medicine, and divinity.) it provides for advanced studies and for special scientific training of a high order.
What shall be done to remedy defects and give to the community the best college the finances of the institution can maintain, and the community fill with sufficiently mature students in every year? Plainly the Preparatory Department must be shrunken up into an Academy, giving one year's effective preparatory instruction to students, whose qualifications for admission shall be such as to bring them easily within one year's preparation for the Freshman Class, under a Freshman standard of fair college severity, rigidly enforced. But such a hard-
61
ening of the Preparatory Department will greatly diminish its revenues, and so expose the reorganization that may be adopted to the risk of exceeding the income of the University at the close of the first year. This is a serious point, but in my opinion the risk must be ac- cepted.
If the Committee on mature deliberation decides to begin in this way, and to limit the institution in its higher aims to such methods and studies as will give a good college education, it seems to me the outline within which an economical and efficient reorganization might be made will have been reached. After that, what number of instruc- tors should be employed, and how the new Faculty should be organ- ized and paid, would become questions of comparatively easy solution.
Without some such fundamental ideas, as to what new basis should be adopted for the reorganization, I do not see how any real progress can be made in your work. The action of the Board leaves it prac- ticable to reappoint professors and others for the coming single year at some reduction of pay, as a temporary measure, in order to a more deliberate and thorough reorganization to be acted upon during next year, and it may be found advisable to resort to some such temporizing device, but I shall be sorry if this occasion for earnest, sincere, and kindly discussion for the best interests of the University and of the youth of this community, who, in after years, may be ex- pected to depend upon it for their sound education, is allowed to pass unimproved, and the monotonous drift of the University in the wrong direction is left to move on to the inevitable end.
There are no endowments of particular professorships which yield the amounts now paid as salaries to the professors, and the duty of the Board to the several partial endowments can very easily be performed in the modified organization now required.
The relation between the University and the Observatory is one of consolidation under a covenant that requires the maintenance of the Observatory on a working basis. The Observatory brought a large property, liberal equipments, and an endowment of $20,000 for salary, yielding $1400 per year at the time of consolidation. Since then the general endowment gift included a further provision for the mainte- nance of the Observatory and for the employment of the Director in works of original research, and practically exempt from duties of
62
instruction, but the Director would be glad to give to the department of instruction a reasonable share of his time, if provision were made for him to lecture.
I trust the Committee will pardon my unasked presentation of my views upon the subject in their hands. I will be content, though none of its suggestions be carried out, if only a good start is made in the work of a thorough effort to make the institution the best possible under all the circumstances that surround it.
Very respectfully yours,
William Thaw.
And now with a few brief extracts from family letters, this Mem- oir will close. It has given only glimpses here and there of this active life. The selections here given are chosen mainly to show his powers of close observation, and rapid description. His love for home and country led him to write almost daily to those nearest to him, and the letters are so interwoven with thoughts of, and for, those to whom he wrote, that it was difficult to find any long passages to suit the pur- pose. Some were written by a manifold process, to serve also as a journal.
[Extracts from letters to Mrs. Thazv^\
Milan, Italy, June 17, 1880. " This city, Milan, is an elegant modern one, with wide streets, reasonably straight; fine buildings and its beautiful cathedral. St. Peter's, Rome, is all inside, the exterior being unattractive, saving the dome, and that you can't see when near the church, but Milan Cathe- dral, without being poor inside, is exteriorly a frozen poem, grand and beautiful, a marvel of exquisite detail — yet a simple and imposing whole. * * * But the letters from home were what made Milan beautiful to us, and we are just through our first reading. * * * "
Bellagio, Lake Como, Italy, June 20, 1880.
" I have written you, in ink, several letters from Venice and Milan, the last just after getting your letter of June first, and Mr. Semple's
63
of June third. We had intended staying longer in Milan, but it became warm, and, after being there forty-eight hours, we decided Saturday noon to take the train for Como (thirty miles) at 4.50 p. m., and at Como, 6 p. M.; took a little steamer for this place. Nobody can describe this lake — the mountains all along both sides of it are so high that they dwarf the lake, and one begins to think it like the Hudson at the Highlands; but when you come to examine the innumerable villas and villages dotting the water's margin and sprinkled everywhere over the mountains' sides, except near their tops, you perceive that the dis- tance is so great that the eye hardly distinguishes separate houses where there is a group of them ; and gradually you come to realize that these mountains are from a mile to a mile and a half perpendicularly high above the level of the lake, while the Hudson Highlands are only from a fourth to a third of a mile high, and so the width of the lake and the extent of the views along its length, have all to be widened out correspondingly in one's thought, to take in the grandeur as well as the beauty of the scene. The water is a translucent, light emerald green, so that you see clear under the small boats passing, and their shadows under water give out its color. We have the most beautiful and com- fortable quarters conceivable ; second-story rooms, with balconies look- ing up and down and across the lake. The weather is cloudy, and it rained this morning, but the endless variety of cloud-forms and cloud- changes going on around the upper half of the mountains, if possible, enhance the beauty of the whole. We had a very good English Epis- copal service in a beautiful little room with windows looking out on the lake. * * * We shall make excursions from here for some days, and then go into the High Alps regions. The boys would like to ride back and forth over every pass that crosses the Alps, but I want them to take the Simplon, from these lakes to Erieg and Visp, and after we have done justice to Zermatt and Chamouny, they may expend any remaining Alpine enthusiasm upon as much Swiss travelling, and as many Swiss hotels as they wish. I take back what I said of Milan Cathedral. I place that one wonderful and beautiful monument of human art and power in a niche by itself. We felt inside of it, as never before, how God's temples not made with hands, the grand aisles of the mightiest forests, the high overarching tracery of living foliage — were the architypes toward which the great Gothic church builders
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worked. The absence of paintings, the undistracted way in which majesty of form at once subdues and elevates one in this marble forest of chiselled columns, made our experience in Milan Cathedral wholly unlike that we felt in St. Peter's. It was simpler, grander, and far lovelier. The colored windows of Milan are of themselves a great sight, and will be, when completed, the one thing now lacking to make the interior perfect. The columns are about twelve feet in diameter and over one hundred feet high. The centre of the ceiling in the nave is one hundred and fifty-five feet, but the device which gives such ex- ceptional power to the general impression made by the interior is, that the outer columns of the aisles, next to the nave, are carried up to the same height as the nave columns, and, although the ceilings of these aisles do not rise to the full height of the nave ceiling, they come near it, and so these inside aisles effect one even more than the nave — being so high, yet narrower, and running unbroken the whole length of the cathedral; while the nave is interrupted by the high altar, which, how- ever, has been kept down so as to let the magnificent upper half of the great central window, at the east end, show the whole length, to the west end doors. We were more interested in the ruins of "The Last Supper" fresco than we expected. It is in better preservation than we supposed — at least, it retained what I did not suppose was possible in a wall painting that has passed through years of neglect, — in a place that, for a time at least, was used for a cavalry stable : namely, the instant and unquestioned power to tell you that it was a supremely good painting, by one who by right stood among the very few great artists and great universal geniuses of all time. Indeed, I have some sus- picion that the beauty and great power of the thing comes, in part, out of its very ruin. Still the forms are all there, and the expression of each figure easily determined, with enough of the color, to complete the suggestiveness of this precious old relic."
Paris, Saturday night, August 10, 1889.
"It is just a month since I saw you, and it seems like a much longer time. With only a week taken by the sea voyage, and in such a ship as the ' City of Paris,' a trip to Europe is no longer a serious thing to undertake. * * * * "
" I continue well, and can bear a two hours' stand and walk now
9 65
without serious fatigue. Yesterday we gave the Louvre another visit, and to-day we spent in a landau drive to Versailles and back, which is a great improvement on going by rail. We went by way of Sevres, a long straggling town, but did not try to see the potteries there. Re- turning, we came by St. Cloud and the Bois de Boulogne. The weather was fine, and I went through the great and little Trianons, which I only viewed externally in 1880, and found much to interest me about the first Napoleon and also about Marie Antoinette. We then went through Versailles proper, and saw all the pictures and curiosities. Before returning we lunched at a restaurant, and I found the whole twenty-two miles' drive restful, in the easy carriage, and over good roads. I take a turn at the Exposition at intervals of a day or two, for, like our 1876 Centennial, it is beyond human power to see it all."
\_Lettcr to his Son Edward.~\ Hotel de Rivoli, Paris, France, Monday, Aug. 12, 1889.
" * * * * I wrote to your mother on Saturday, and so shall tell how I spent Sunday. It was a bright, beautiful, cool day, with two heavy showers here, at three and at five o'clock in the after- noon. At 11 a.m. I went to the English Church — it is larger than Trinity Church, Pittsburgh, and very light and cheerful, and the con- gregation quite filled it. There was a very fine boy-choir, and all the responses were chanted. However the excellent service of worship which the common prayerbook gives, makes it real worship, and, altogether, it is a great gain to have such churches in Paris for our wandering and resident fellow Americans.
" To-day I am going to work a few hours at the Exposition after an interval since Thursday. I now go to see some particular parts which I happened to see last Monday, as you can never get through, nor remem- ber much, if you simply wander through the interminable halls and galleries and nooks. The display of habitations and occupations of savage or barbarous people is among the most interesting and instruc- tive, for one can see just how people in Central Africa, Australia, or the Pacific Islands, eat, live and work; and also their musical instruments. The aborigines of Australia, who used to be called Bushmen, seem to be more entirely savage and animal-like in their life and surroundings
66
than any others, the Congo tribes of Africa being comparatively civil- ized in comparison.
The display of oil paintings of all nations is enough to keep a person interested in such things busy for a year. One can do little more than glance at them, and stop now and then before something that catches the eye or has been mentioned as specially excellent. * "
In his last letter home, one largely filled with his own plans for travel, and advice in reference to affairs at home, this sentence occurs, " I think I shall go to Brussels and the Hague, the end of this week, or the following Monday, August 19th." It was not left for him to de- cide. On the morning of the 17th he was called home.
Lyndhurst, Pittsburgh, E. E. October 19, 1891.
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