Fatherless Child - Expose Number Thirtyfive

http://www.thelizlibrary.org/fatherless/035.html

This child was born in 1837 in New Jersey, the fifth of nine children. His mother was the daughter of a shoemaker, and his father was an itinerant preacher. The family moved frequently. The child was a happy-go-lucky boy who liked to play pranks as well as outdoor sports, and was particularly devoted to his mother and sisters.

When he was in his mid-teens, his father died, and he was forced to drop out of school and get a job to help support the family. Because he had been a good student, he was able to get a job as teaching assistant, but in order to take it, he had to leave home. He spent a year away doing this, and not liking it, wanting to return, but there were no jobs available in the small town in which his mother and sisters lived. Thus, after quitting, and then looking unsuccessfully for different work, he left home again, and obtained a job in a lawyer's office. This was lucky, because it enabled him to "read for the bar" -- a form of legal apprenticeship which was permitted in those days -- even though he had never even graduated from high school.

After passing the bar, he settled down to practice law in Buffalo, New York. He began gaining a reputation for being extraordinarily honest and principled. He also gained a reputation for being tough, as well as a bit eccentric and something of a character. But people really liked him.

He served for a while as the local prosecutor, then for some years as the town sheriff. While he held this office, he also acted as the town executioner, actually hanging two men!

Later he served as mayor of the city. Some time later, his popularity continuing to increase, he was elected governor of New York, bucking the powerful Tammany Hall political machine in New York City to achieve this.

And still later, he became President of the United States, winning the popular vote three times.

He was the only Democrat ever elected to the Presidency during the 19th Century Republican era known as "the Gilded Age". He was the most conservative Democrat president ever in office, supporting small government and big business. He was an ardent supporter of keeping America on the gold standard. He was the only President to serve two non-consecutive terms.

He also was the only President ever to be married while in office. He married for the first time when he was 51 years old -- to a woman who was only 24. They ultimately had five children together. His first child, who was born while he was in office, had a candy bar named after her.

He was the first President to be in the movies. He also liked to hunt, and named his favorite hunting rifle "Death and Destruction." And he was the only U.S. President who personally answered the White House telephone.

When he was a boy, his nickname was "Big Steve". Today we know him best by his middle name.

Stephen Grover Cleveland, a boy from a "fatherless home."

Fatherless Child - Expose Number Thirtyfour

http://www.thelizlibrary.org/fatherless/034.html

This child was born in a small town in Pennsylvania in 1745, the fourth child in a family of seven children. His father died when he was six, and so he was sent off to live with his maternal uncle, a Presbyterian minister who had founded a school for children. An exemplary student, he graduated from the College of New Jersey (now known as Princeton) at age 15, and then went on to study medicine, first in Philadelphia, and then London.

On the way to London, he became upset at seeing the conditions on dozens of slave ships in Liverpool Harbor. The impression this made on him would color his views and scholarship for the remainder of his life

At age 24, he returned to Philadelphia to practice medicine and teach chemistry at Philadelphia College. During this time, he also started writing articles and treatises on politics and in favor of the abolition of slavery, as well as on his scientific theories. These writings brought him to the attention of revolutionaries such as Thomas Paine, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson. And so, in 1776, he was appointed as a delegate from Pennsylvania to the Continental Congress.

During the Revolutionary War, he served as Surgeon-General to the Continental Army until a falling out with General Washington ended his military career. He returned to teaching, writing, and practicing medicine, gaining prominence in the field of medicine. He married a young woman with whom he had 13 children, 9 of whom survived infancy.

He became a vocal proponent in favor of women's rights, and the rights of those with mental illnesses, as well as an outspoken opponent against the institution of slavery. He also advocated for universal health care and for education for all. He wrote the first American textbook in chemistry, and he tutored Meriwether Lewis to prepare him for the great Corps of Discovery expedition.

A deeply religious man, largely because of his maternal uncle's early influence, he disagreed with the concept of separation of church and state -- he believed that Christianity should be a part of public life as well as taught in the schools.

He wrote:

"The only foundation for a republic is to be laid in Religion. Without this there can be no virtue, and without virtue there can be no liberty, and liberty is the object and life of all republican governments."

While many of his ideas, such as the misguided medical practice of bloodletting, have been proved wrong, his thinking in other ways has been considered to have been ahead of his time. Perhaps his greatest legacy is that of advocating for the advancement of knowledge in all areas of life, and for our government to work for the benefit of all.

Today this child is sometimes called the "father of the public school system". And because of his work as a physician on behalf of those with mental disabilities, he also is considered to be a founder of the field of psychiatry.

On the seal of the American Psychiatric Association is a silhouette of that founder. The person it belongs to was human rights advocate and signer of the Declaration of Independence,

Benjamin Rush, a boy from a "fatherless home."

Fatherless Child - Expose Number Thirtythree

http://www.thelizlibrary.org/fatherless/033.html

This child was born in 1819 in New York City to a family of genteel New England ancestry. He was the third of eight children. When he was 7, he had scarlet fever, which impaired his eyesight.

His mother was said to have been a social climber and spendthrift. His father, ostensibly a merchant and importer, borrowed himself into bankruptcy, and then died when the boy was 12. Because of these events, he was forced to leave school, and start drifting through a variety of odd jobs to support himself, including as a clerk at his eldest brother's hat store, as a farmhand, and even as a surveyor on the Erie Canal, which was then being built. But he was at loose ends. He felt somewhat rejected and neglected by his mother, who seemed to prefer other of her children to him. He did not really like what he was doing. He had always wanted to go to college and become a "great orator", but there was no money.

Without clear direction, when he was 18, he took a job as a cabin boy on a ship that crossed the Atlantic to Great Britain. When he returned, he worked for a few years as a school teacher, and started writing. But he was still dissatisfied. He signed on as a member of the crew on a ship embarking on a three-to-four year voyage in the South Pacific. What he saw and experienced during this period of time began shaping his views of people, politics, and religion.

Over a period of time when other young men his age were in college, he was obtaining an education of a different kind. He became very much a skeptic and free thinker, questioning the injustices he saw perpetrated by so-called good Christians, such as colonization and slavery.

He later wrote about the choice to become a sailer on that long voyage:

"Some years ago-nevermind how long precisely -- having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world."

He developed a devotion to writing and literature, often using his unusual experiences as the setting for his stories.

When he was 28, he married and settled down with his wife on a farm in Massachusetts, not far from the home of a friend he would later make, another writer, Nathaniel Hawthorne. He and his wife had four children, and for a number of years, they farmed and he wrote books. Later, however, he fell out of popularity as an author, in large part because of the themes in his works, which even included male bonding, with homoerotic undertones. Still later, his marriage went on the rocks, and his eldest son accidentally shot himself.

In his last book, written when he was an old man and nearly blind, published posthumously, he returned to the themes of sailing and the sea to contemplate justice, law, and human values.

Some of his quotes are:

"There is no dignity in wickedness, whether in purple or rags;
and hell is a democracy of devils, where all are equals."

"Truth uncompromisingly told will always have its ragged edges."

"Talk not to me of blasphemy, man. I'd strike the sun if it insulted me."

Call him Ishmael, if you like. He is now recognized as one of the greatest American authors, and you might even have read one of his books, such as Moby Dick.

Herman Melville, a boy from a "fatherless home."

Fatherless Child - Expose Number Thirtytwo

http://www.thelizlibrary.org/fatherless/032.html

This child was born in 1948 in Georgia, the second of three children in an impoverished family. His mother worked as a maid. The town in which they lived lacked a sewage system or paved roads. When he was still a toddler, his father abandoned the family.

When he was seven, the one-room house he lived in with his mother and siblings burned to the ground. He and his brother were sent away to live with his maternal grandparents. In some ways, this was better -- he now ate regularly and lived in a house with indoor plumbing. But his childhood was unhappy. His grandfather, a demanding and strict religious man, sometimes made him feel ashamed of the poor community of his origins, and also of his difficulty speaking standard English.

The child was a good student, however, and in his spare time, he liked to go to the local library. Occasionally after school, he also accompanied his grandfather to work. When he was halfway through high school, he was sent to a seminary to become a priest. He did fairly well there, and then transferred to another seminary in Missouri. He was not happy at this school at all, and soon quit. After taking some time off, and extricating himself from his controlling grandfather, he re-enrolled in a different college, where he decided to major in English, and did very well, graduating ninth in his class.

After graduating, he married his college sweetheart, and was accepted on scholarship into one of the country's top law schools. When he successfully finished law school, he went to work in the Missouri Attorney General's office, and then for a large pharmaceutical company as a corporate lawyer. Through these experiences and the contacts he made, he secured a job with an administrative agency of the federal government. He worked at this job for some years, during which he went through a divorce and then, two years later, happily remarried.

In 1990, he was appointed to the position of judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C.

Subsequently, in a controversial nomination process, he was appointed to another judicial position. Some have claimed that emotional issues from his difficult childhood carried into his adult life. But no one could say that he did not achieve for himself extraordinary personal success. He is U.S. Supreme Court Justice

Clarence Thomas, a boy from a "fatherless home."

Fatherless Child - Expose Number Thirtyone

http://www.thelizlibrary.org/fatherless/031.html

This child was born in Scotland in 1881 into a poor farm family. He was the seventh child of eight siblings and half-siblings. When he was seven years old, his father died. His mother and older siblings continued to run the farm. He attended a local rural grammar school, and for the most part was a hardworking, good student.

One day the boy had an accident on the school playground. He broke his nose, which was never fixed. This permanently gave him a face that looked a little like that of a boxer.

At age 14, he was sent far from home to live with one of his older brothers who lived in London, and who had gone on to medical school and become a doctor. Several other siblings later joined them.

He got a job as a shipping clerk, where he worked through the rest of his adolescent years. Then, when he was about 20, his uncle died, leaving him a small inheritance. This and a scholarship enabled him to return to school to study medicine as his older brother had done.

When he graduated, he obtained a job as a research bacteriologist in the same institution that had given him the scholarship. He interrupted work this for a time to serve as a physician in the army. In his mid-thirties, he married, and had one son, who also later became a physician.

In 1928 while he was working in his lab, he noticed a petri dish that had become contaminated with mold. The mold had killed off a staphylococcus culture that had been growing in the dish..

Seventeen years later, he won the Nobel Prize.

In his later life he said, in response to the folly of overly exalting teamwork that "It is the lone worker who makes the first advance in a subject. The details may be worked out by a team, but the prime idea is due to the enterprise, thought, and perception of an individual."

He also said, commenting on life as much as research that "One sometimes finds what one is not looking for."

By the time of his death, the man who discovered penicillin -- the wonder drug that has saved countless lives -- had received worldwide recognition and numerous awards, lectured at the finest universities, been knighted by the Queen, and become an exemplar of scholarly achievement. He was

Alexander Fleming, a boy from a "fatherless home."

Fatherless Child - Expose Number Thirty

http://www.thelizlibrary.org/fatherless/030.html

This child was born in 1758, the eldest son of five children of a wealthy Virginia tobacco planter and slave owner. He was raised in luxury and attended the finest schools where he studied Latin, math, science, literature, and the Romance languages. He and his school chum were the top students -- his friend later became one of the most famous Chief Justices of the U.S.Supreme Court.

When he was 16, his father died, and he and his brother inherited the plantation and the rest of their father's estate. His mother's brother, acting as his guardian, encouraged him to start college, but he became distracted by the politics and war fever that was sweeping the county. He quit school after one year to join the Continental Army and fight in the Revolutionary War, where he crossed the Delaware with Washington, and also made the acquaintance of Thomas Jefferson. He never returned to college.

Instead, after the war, he studied law for two years under Jefferson, and then was appointed as a member of the Continental Congress, where he and his friend Patrick Henry argued vehemently against a strong federal government in favor of States' Rights.

At age 29, he married, and had three children. His two daughters survived, but his only son died in infancy. He ran for and became a U.S. Senator from Virgina. Afterward, he was appointed Minister to France. He also served as the Governor of Virginia, and helped Robert Livingston negotiate Jefferson's Louisiana Purchase. Later he served as Minister to Great Britain, and was appointed Secretary of State under President James Madison.

His final achievement was being elected President himself for two terms, which later came to be called "the Era of Good Feeling". Upon his reelection, he won every Electoral College vote except for one. This sweep effectively terminated the Federalist Party in America.

This political statesman, founding father, and champion of States' Rights, who is sometimes known as the "The Last Cocked Hat", meaning the last Revolutionary War president, was

James Monroe, a boy from a "fatherless home."

Fatherless Child - Expose Number Twentynine

http://www.thelizlibrary.org/fatherless/029.html

This child lost both his mother and father when he was only nine years old, and then grew up to become one of the world's greatest composers.

He was born March 21, 1685, in Germany, the youngest child of six children in a large extended family, many of whom were musicians. His father was a court musician, as were his uncles and older brothers. While still very young, the boy learned to play a number of musical instruments, including the harpsichord and violin.

After his parents' unexpected deaths in the same year, he went to live with his eldest brother, who was newly married and working as a church organist. While living with his brother, he attended grammar school, where he was taught to read and write. His brother also gave him music lessons, and he learned how to play -- and also how to repair and manufacture -- organs.

The brother was poor, however, and so the child was required to obtain a job, and turn over all of his earnings to help with his support. Because of his beautiful soprano voice, the child obtained a job singing with a religious chorale group, which also gave him the opportunity to further his musical education.

As an adult, he married twice, having a total of 20 children, seven with his first wife, who died, and then thirteen with his second wife, who was only 17 when she married him. By all accounts, both marriages were successful and happy, although not all of the twenty children survived to adulthood.

He spent the bulk of his lifetime teaching music, performing as the music director in a church and as a court organist, and writing an astonishing twenty volumes of original compositions. He achieved some fame during his lifetime, and after his death, his achievements came to be more and more appreciated. Three centuries later, he is universally recognized as a musical genius.

This fatherless child, who is considered to be the best contrapuntal, or "counterpoint" composer of all time, was

Johann Sebastian Bach, a boy from a "fatherless home."

Fatherless Child - Expose Number Twentyeight

http://www.thelizlibrary.org/fatherless/028.html

This child was born in 1804 in Salem, Masachusetts, into a well-connected family that hailed from a long line of famous and powerful Puritan ancestors. One of his ancestors was a judge who presided over the Salem witch trials.

When the child was four, his father, a sea captain, was drowned at sea. This forced his mother and the child and his two sisters to have to leave their home and thereafter live on the charity of her extended family. The child's mother, it has been said, became overprotective, and consequently, the child grew up shy and "bookish". Nevertheless, he later reported that his childhood was a happy one, and he was close with his family.

While in school, because of his shyness, he was uncomfortable with public speaking -- an academic requirement in those days -- and often preferred solitary thinking and studying to socializing. Otherwise, he was good at his studies, and enjoyed reading and writing.

He persevered through school and college, writing stories and articles from a young age. Often he wrote them anonymously. A few were published. When he graduated from a local college, in order to earn money, he took a job as a customs house official. During this young period of his life, he became acquainted with men who themselves ultimately rose to become famous writers and poets.

Finally, his writing began to earn sufficient additional money for him to marry and settle down. Then, when he was fired from his job, and he was forced to write full-time to earn a living, he began to achieve real success with his novels. By the end of his life he was a famous, established author, friend and confident of presidents, and even a European ambassador.

This child's prolific writings are notable for their controversial moral and philosophical subjects, as well as for their extraordinary and forward-thinking insights. Many of them question the assumptions of traditional family and society. Many of the characters in his books have lost parents, and the issue of family values and parentage is an important theme. While some students today who get assignments to read his works in school might find his writing to be a bit tedious and flowery by modern standards, without question, the stories themselves are entertaining and remain relevant.

This giant of American literature, whose fiction dealt with themes of prejudice, and confronted ideas about sin and evil, and misguided assumptions of right and wrong, the author of such classics as the "Twice-Told Tales", "The House of Seven Gables", and the very famous "The Scarlet Letter" was

Nathanial Hawthorne, a boy from a "fatherless home."

Fatherless Child - Expose Number Twentyseven

http://www.thelizlibrary.org/fatherless/027.html

This child, an only child, was born into a wealthy family in upstate New York in the late 1800s. Her father was an alcoholic who was disowned by his relatives. When the child was 8, her mother died, and she was sent to live with relatives. Then, when she was 10, her father, who she had rarely seen anyway, also died.

When she was 15, her relatives sent her off to a boarding school in London, where she proved to be an outstanding student. The headmistress there befriended her, and helped her to expand her experience and outlook beyond the privileged bigotry of the narrow and provincial society into which she had been born.

When she was 18, she returned to the United States, and became a social worker. She got married and had six children, although one son died in infancy. Her marriage was not a happy one, however. She did not get along well with her mother-in-law, and her husband repeatedly cheated on her. Then, when she was in her 30s, her husband became ill with a disease from which he never fully recovered, and which further burdened their lives.

Although the marriage endured, once her children were nearly grown, she decided that she had to pursue her own life and interests. She built herself her own residence not far away from her husband's home, and with her friends, started a furniture factory to provide work for unemployed workers. This business was successful and soon expanded to pewter work and weaving. Then, she and a friend purchased and operated a private girls' school, where she taught history.

When her husband's work took him to Washington, D.C., she became an activist for educational and civil rights programs. She worked with the National Consumers League, the Red Cross, the League of Women Voters, the Women's Trade Union League, the American Student Union, and the American Youth Congress. She also wrote books and numerous magazine articles and columns.

In 1941, she was appointed by the president as the assistant director of the Office of Civilian Defense, where she helped organize volunteer and community efforts during World War II. After the war, the president appointed her to be a delegate to the first United Nations General Assembly, where she worked with world leaders on humanitarian, social, and cultural issues. This work continued for more than two decades, through a brief semi-retirement, to yet another official appointment to the United Nations during the Kennedy administration. Her greatest accomplishment in the U.N. was, perhaps, the passage of its Human Rights Doctrine. She also chaired the 1961-62 United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, and participated in dozens of others causes ranging from fair labor practices, to activism for Jewish refugees, to black civil rights.

At the time of her death, she was considered to be one of the most admired women in the world. This humanitarian, diplomat, social reformer, and author, one of the most important women of the 20th century, was

Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, a girl from a "fatherless home."

Fatherless Child - Expose Number Twentysix

http://www.thelizlibrary.org/fatherless/026.html

This child was born in 1820. He was one of four children, the only boy. His father was one of the most famous inventors in U.S. history, who had built a gun manufacturing center in New Haven, Connecticut. New Haven was at that time poised on the edge of the Industrial Revolution. The entrepreneurial spirit of the manufacturing community was growing and energetic. Two of the child's uncles also were inventors and entrepreneurs. Family members and friends owned businesses and factories.

But then, when the child was four years old, his famous father died.

The child attended Yale University, and then Princeton. Upon graduating, at age 21, he took over the armory where his father once had made rifles. He retooled the armory, and began producing different kinds of weapons. Then he put his education to use in developing the business, branching out to the manufacture of handguns.

One of his biggest manufacturing coups was joining forces with a man named Samuel Colt to produce a revolver Colt had invented. To do so, he first had to invent and manufacture the machines to produce the revolvers.

Over a period of years, the business grew, and it became more sophisticated, applying the latest technology and business theories. Over the same period of time, the population of the city of New Haven also grew. Ultimately the child became a powerful and wealthy industrialist, and a noted inventor himself, like his father and uncles. He also built a water works company for the city, became influential in local and state politics as an early Republican, and was reknowned for his generosity as a philanthropist.

Undoubtedly, you've heard all about the remarkable inventor of the cotton gin. His only son inherited his talent for business innovation and invention, and parlayed the material inheritance he received from his father into America's industrial age, helping to build America's future world superiority in arms manufacturing. Did he require his father's parenting in order to become an achiever? Or were his accomplishments the result of other factors...

Eli Whitney, Jr., a boy from a "fatherless home."

Fatherless Child - Expose Number Twentyfive

http://www.thelizlibrary.org/fatherless/025.html

This is the story of two fatherless boys.

The first was the son of an aristocratic Frenchman and a slave woman living in the Caribbean on the island now called Haiti. As a young adult, he traveled to France to meet his father, but the man told him that he did not want it known that he had an illegitimate son. He helped him to get a job in the French army on the condition that the boy keep his paternity a secret, and never tell anyone who his father was. The boy became a soldier for Napolean, and over some years became rather famous, perhaps as much for his strikingly different good looks as for his bravery and military exploits.

Later he was captured and imprisoned, and suffered permanently disabling wounds from his treatment in prison -- paralysis, partial deafness, lifelong pain. When he finally was freed, he married a French girl and settled with her in a quiet French village. The year was 1802. They had a son. All three of them now carried the last name of a Caribbean slave woman. But then he died when the boy was only four years old.

The son was raised by his widowed mother on stories about his secret French grandfather and his heroic soldier father. He was alternately inspired, angered, and haunted by them. He would wander in the woods, fantasizing about being a soldier himself, fighting and getting revenge for his father's death. He took up the sport of fencing. He also played billiards. He also liked to read and write, and developed a very nice handwriting, which he put to good use in his first job as a clerk, copying business and legal documents by hand, as they did in those days.

One day when the boy was 16 or 17, he won a lot of money playing billiards, and so left his village home to seek his fortune in Paris. He found another job as a clerk, which enabled him to read the many books he was copying. Reading inspired him to get himself educated, so he began taking classes on a part-time basis whenever he could.

After a while, he started writing himself -- books, stories, and articles. He became an extraordinarily clever writer, witty and articulate.

In between writing, he fathered a couple of illegitimate third-generation fatherless children, had many romances, wrote a play that was widely decried as obscene, became a theatrical producer, traveled through Europe and Africa, tried marriage (but it didn't agree with him), published a magazine, made friends and enemies in high and low places, made and lost lots of money, lived fast, entertained lavishly, got into various legal disputes, worked for a time for the government, developed a hobby of gourmet cooking, and all in all had... a most extraordinary life.

One day he made friends with a history professor who sought his advice about an idea for writing historical fiction. He entered into a collaboration with the man, combining accurate history with the romantic fantasies of his own life and ancestry, and the more serious themes of government, religion, corruption, revenge, purpose, liberty, honor, justice, and brotherhood.

The legendary solder whose life inspired the books they wrote together was

Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, a boy from a "fatherless home."

His son, author of the famous revenge novel, The Count of Monte Cristo, and co-author of the epic Three Musketeers trilogy, the greatest adventure stories ever written, was

Alexandre Dumas, a boy from a "fatherless home."

Fatherless Child - Expose Number Twentyfour

http://www.thelizlibrary.org/fatherless/024.html

This child was born in a suburb of Philadelphia in 1924, the elder child of two brothers. His father, an assistant city solicitor, died when he was nine years old.

The boy attended parochial elementary school in Pennsylvania, and regularly worked during high school to save money for college. In order to help his mother make ends meet, he delivered newspapers, and worked at the post office and a refinery, and as a floorwalker in a store.

After he had attended college at Notre Dame for a year, he won a commission to attend his first choice school, which was West Point, and so, at age 20, started his post-secondary education over again. Later, he furthered his education with advanced business degrees.

As a young military officer, he served under General MacArthur in the Pacific, and served in seven Korean War campaigns. Later, he served in Vietnam, receiving the Distinguished Service Cross from General Westmoreland. Part of that citation reads:

Heedless of the danger himself, [he] repeatedly braved intense hostile fire to survey the battlefield. His personal courage and determination, and his skillful employment of every defense and support tactic possible, inspired his men to fight with previously unimagined power. Although his force was outnumbered three to one...
During his service in Vietnam, he also was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Purple Heart.

After the Vietnam War, he taught at West Point, and, among his many accomplishments, after being promoted to the rank of general, he became Vice-Chief of Staff of the US Army in Washington and worked as an advisor in the National Security Council. He served on the White House staff of multiple presidents. At one time, he was falsely rumoured to have been Woodward and Bernstein's "Deep Throat". In 1981, he became the 59th U.S. Secretary of State.

In 1988, he ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination for president against the elder George Bush. Later, he hosted a television program on business and political issues. He currently is co-chairman of the American Committee for Peace in the Caucasus and on the Board of Advisors of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. He was a founding board member of America Online.

This U.S. soldier, statesman, and accomplished business leader is

Gen. Alexander Haig, a boy from a "fatherless home."

Fatherless Child - Expose Number Twentythree

http://www.thelizlibrary.org/fatherless/023.html

This child was one of the preeminent men of the 19th Century. He was born in 1808 in New Hampshire. He was the eighth child of 11 children. When he was nine years old his father, a tavern owner and local politician died.

His mother moved the family to a small farm she had inherited. But within a year they fell on hard times, and the boy and one of his brothers were sent off to Ohio for three years to live with an uncle, previously a stranger, who was an Episcopal Bishop and educator.

After receiving an excellent education thanks to his uncle, the child attended Dartmouth where he studied law. After graduating, he opened a law practice, and became well-known as an abolitionist lawyer, defending many fugitive slaves and those who helped them. While he was still a young man, he declared slavery to be unconstitutional in a trial in which he was defending a fugitive woman. An older lawyer in the courtroom was heard to remark, "There goes a promising young man who has just ruined himself."

One of the things this child wrote during his lifetime is remembered today in the public discourse more than the man himself, or the details about his life.

On the coins that are in your pocket is his most famous phrase. He was the man responsible for putting it there. It is: "In God We Trust".

He was, during his long political career, a Whig, a member of the Free Soil Party -- a group that separated itself from the Democrats, a Republican, and then briefly, a Democrat again when he quarreled with reconstructionist Republicans. He was the first abolitionist elected to the United States Senate as an abolitionist, and not from any party at all. In between stints as a U.S. Senator, he was the governor of Ohio.

He was the primary reformer in Abraham Lincoln's cabinet. He was described as a "towering figure" in his times, a man who actually argued with Lincoln and felt himself to be Lincoln's intellectual superior. It was he who convinced Lincoln that the Civil War should not be limited to preserving the Union, but primarily associated with abolishing slavery and other injustices.

He was Abraham Lincoln's first Secretary of the Treasury and later a Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. There is a law school in Kentucky named after him. One of the largest banks in the country today also is named after him. This great American statesman, economist, jurist, abolitionist, and the man whose face was once featured on the American $10,000 bill, was

Salmon P. Chase, a boy from a "fatherless home."

Fatherless Child - Expose Number Twentytwo

http://www.thelizlibrary.org/fatherless/022.html

This child was born in Europe before the American Revolution to a wealthy military family who lived in a castle. His father died when he was two; and his mother enrolled him in a military school when he was just 11. Two years later, when he was thirteen, his mother also died.

At the age of fourteen he became a palace page, then palace guard, and a couple of years later, he became a full-fledged commissioned officer in the army. That same year, when he was 16 years old, he married a 15-year-old girl.

One day, he heard a reading of the American Declaration of Independence. It was a vision of a republican government that he felt would serve the people of his own country far better than any monarchy.

He was so inspired that he purchased a ship and sailed to America, where he volunteered to serve -- without pay -- in the Continental Army. At first he was rebuffed, but then Gen. Washington relented and gave him a commission. Thus, at the start of the war, he served on Washington's staff along with Alexander Hamilton, ultimately becoming good friends with both of them. He was wounded in the Battle of Brandywine, but recovered and continued to fight, including spending the terrible and famous winter with Washington's troops at Valley Forge.

His skill and dedication resulted in his rising in rank, until at age 20 this military prodigy became hailed as a hero. To this day, he remains the youngest general in American military history.

After the Revolutionary War, he returned to his homeland and duplicated his military exploits there. In later life, he became a famous political statesman, known for his charismatic speeches in America and abroad.

Independence Hall in Philadelphia received its name after one of his speeches. During his most remarkable life, he made and lost fortunes, went in and out of politics and the military, and fought for revolutionary ideals in multiple countries on two continents.

This hero of two worlds, a man who repeatedly put his life on the line for his ideals, was the French General

Gilbert du Motier, the Marquis de Lafayette, a boy from a "fatherless home."

Fatherless Child - Expose Number Twentyone

http://www.thelizlibrary.org/fatherless/021.html

This child was born in Georgia in 1919, the youngest of five children. His father was a poor sharecropper, earning $12 a month for working another man's farmland. His mother worked as a maid. Shortly after the child's birth, his father abandoned the family, heading for Florida, and was never heard from again.

Unable to continue supporting the family in Georgia, his mother took her five children, along with her own sister, her sister's husband, their two children, and three friends on a train to California, where a relative had an apartment for them to stay in a bad part of town. She continued to work as a domestic six days a week, and the children were often left alone to fend for themselves.

The child attended a public elementary school and then a vocational high school, wearing hand-me-down clothes. He was not a stellar student. He even joined a local gang, and he and his friends sometimes entertained themselves by throwing rocks at passersby, and playing other pranks. Sometimes they would sneak onto a local golf course to steal balls, which they then sold back to the golfers. Although he did get a paper route to earn money, sometimes he and his friends just stole things, and often what they stole was food.

When he finished high school, he went to a local junior college. Later he attended the state university on a scholarship, where he met the woman who became his life-long partner and wife, and the mother of his three children. He was forced to leave college before graduation, however, because he simply did not have enough money, even with the scholarship, to finish his studies.

After he left college, he worked for a little while, and then joined the Army, where he rose to become a lieutenant within two years, but where he also nearly became court-martialed when he defied a rule he thought was unjust and discriminatory.

In his later life, this child fought against other discriminatory laws, fighting racism in everything he did. He worked with Malcolm X as well as Martin Luther King in the civil rights movement. He testified against discrimination before the House Un-American Activities Committee. He also worked for New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller, authored numerous newspaper articles, and was a television commentator.

After his death from a heart attack as a relatively young man, his wife established a foundation in his honor to help gifted young persons in need of scholarships and and other kinds of assistance.

The inscription on his grave reads:

"A life is not important except in the line of impact it has on other lives."

In a speech about him President Nixon said that he had brought a sense of brotherhood "to every area of American life where black and white people work side by side."

This child was UCLA's first four-letter athlete, the first person to be awarded all three of baseball's highest honors, one of the greatest athletes of all time, and perhaps best known as the man who broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball:

Jack Roosevelt Robinson, aka Jackie Robinson, a boy from a "fatherless home."

Fatherless Child - Expose Number Twenty

http://www.thelizlibrary.org/fatherless/020.html

This child was born in Great Britain into a lower middle-class family. His father, who was himself an orphan, worked on a ship, and repeatedly walked in and out of his wife and child's life starting when the boy was still an infant. He left for good, emigrating to another country, when the boy was five.

The child's mother was very young, and financially unable to care for him, and so he was raised mostly by his mother's sister. Thus, the child's young mother also went in and out of his life.

His mother visited him often, however, but the child later would indicate that not being with her regularly was a traumatic loss. On one of her visits when he was a young teenager, she brought him a banjo, and began to teach him how to play it. In his spare time, the child also liked to make drawings and write poetry. In fact, he discovered that he was incredibly good at drawing.

But then the child's mother died in an accident. The child started to become more and more outspoken and rebellious. He found some comfort in his friendship with another boy he met at school who also had lost his mother, and who happened to share his interests. He stayed in touch with him after graduating high school and after going off to attend a fine arts college.

The child decided he did not like college, that it was too "conformist", and so he dropped out. After getting in touch with his high school friend, the two formed a band.

This child, one of the most influential songwriters of the twentieth century, was

John Lennon, a boy from a "fatherless home."

Dads Inc.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Daddy Defense
I've debated on whether to write this post or not. I don't want to give publicity to the subject of this post. But the subject is just so sad and uninformed that I feel like I need to.

You see, the other day, through a contact on Twitter, I found a link to a blog called: Do Children NEED fathers?, whose author wishes to, "expose the myths pertaining to fatherless children through this blog. Children do not NEED a father, they need at least one caring emotionally capable person to care for them. If that child can have two and those two happen to be mother and father, then great. A child does not NEED a father if that father is bad."

What the author does is recount in vague details the biography of someone who didn't always have a father in his/her life. Then at the end of the 2-3 paragraphs, you find out that it is a description of someone important historical figure. The point is that a kid CAN grow up to be smart, successful or famous without a father. A point I don't argue.

What I do take exception with are 4 problems with her posts, which I will detail. (Read More....)

To clarify in case those who cannot or will not click no my "about me link, here is what it says:

Kids Needs Dads?
Gender: Male
About Me
Children need money in order to succeed and be cared for, children do not need a father if that father is bad.

My Blogs Team Members
Do Children NEED fathers?

Blogs I Follow
Dastardly Dads

My name is George, NOT pleased to meet you, if all you will do is state the propaganda spread by most women haters. The reason this blog is here is to balance the anti-woman venom that is so prevalent on the Internet. Contrary to what this blog owner states and thinks - I am not missing my own father, I had both of my parents. I simply have seen the recent anti-mother and anti-woman hatred spewing forth on many websites and have in my own way decided to counteract that hate.

Fatherless Child - Expose Number Nineteen

http://www.thelizlibrary.org/fatherless/019.html

This child was born in a small town in Greece. His mother was from an aristocratic family, and his father was a reknowned physician. He was the last of three children. His mother died when he was young, and following his father's death when he was 10, the child became a ward of his older sister's husband. At that age he was sent off to a boarding school.

The child was a good student. At age 17, he went to the country's finest academy of higher learning, where he excelled. His studies at the academy included languages, philosophy, and the maths, but he was most interested in science. After graduating, he first became a researcher and then a professor at the same academy.

When he was somewhat older, he married the teenage daughter of a friend, and they had one child. By all accounts, it was a successful and loving marriage, but his wife took ill while still young and died prematurely. Later he had an illegitimate second daughter with another woman. He was close to both of his children throughout their lives and provided well for them.

During his years of teaching, he began to develop a systematic approach to doing research, which he called "analytics", and which he considered necessary to master before science or any other learning in any subject properly could be advanced.

This child became well known throughout his country as a teacher, and for his ideas on subjects ranging from politics to ethics to biology. Later he founded a new educational institution, whose reputation ultimately surpassed the academy he formerly had attended and worked at.

He wrote in one of his treatises that "Education is the best provision for old age."

He also believed that those who educate children are to be more honored than parents, for parents give a child life, but the other give a child the art of living well.

One of his most famous sayings is, "The whole is greater than the sum of its parts."

This child, whose systems of research and logical reasoning provided the foundation for centuries of subsequent human advancement in the fields of philosophy, ethics, law, mathematics, education, and science was

Aristotle, a boy from a "fatherless home."

Fatherless Child - Expose Number Eighteen

http://www.thelizlibrary.org/fatherless/018.html

This child was born in Minnesota in 1898. When he was six, his father died. The family was impoverished. His mother pushed him and his two siblings to do well in school. They also had to go to work when they were small to help support the family. The child washed windows, swept floors, and took other jobs that were available. In his spare time he took long walks in the mountains, and developed a love of the wilderness

He was bright in school, and so when he finished high school, he received a partial scholarship to college. He earned the rest of his tuition and board by taking jobs as a janitor and mowing lawns. On Sundays, he liked to preach in church. After graduating from college, he worked as a schoolteacher for two years. Then he applied to and was accepted to Columbia law school in New York City. To get there, since he could not afford a train ticket, he hopped the rails, like a hobo.

He performed brilliantly in law school, and afterward obtained a job at a large New York law firm. Then he taught law at Coumbia and then Yale law schools. When he was 25, he got married and had two children. It was the first of four marriages, but this first one lasted more than 30 years. He was a cold and harsh father however, and a later wife described him as insecure. Another accused him of ignoring her.

When he was thirty-six, in 1934, he left teaching to work for the new Securities and Exchange Commission established by FDR as part of the New Deal. After that, when he was only 40 years old, President Franklin Roosevelt appointed him to serve on the Supreme Court, where he served longer than any other Justice, almost 37 years.

Some have called his prolific but arguably unimpressive opinions in the Court those of a crusading liberal. Others describe him as a free speech absolutist, and a libertarian Democrat. Others have recognized that he stood primarily for the individual constitutional liberties, and actually had an intense fear of big government. One of his law clerks described him as a man of action, who should not have been a judge but would have done better as a governor or senator.

He wrote the following words in a radio essay that aired in 1951:

"These days I see graft and corruption reach high into government. These days I see people afraid to speak their minds because someone will think they are unorthodox and therefore disloyal. These days I see America identified more and more with material things, less and less with spiritual standards. These days I see America drifting from the Christian faith, acting abroad as an arrogant, selfish, greedy nation, interested only in guns and dollars, not in people and their hopes and aspirations... We need a faith that dedicates us to something bigger and more important than ourselves or our possessions. Only if we have that faith will we be able to guide the destiny of nations, in this, the most critical period of world history. This I believe."

This man, one of America's most controversial and complex Justices, and unquestionably one of the most influential men in the twentieth century, was U.S. Supreme Court Justice

William O. Douglas, a boy from a "fatherless home."

Fatherless Child - Expose Number Seventeen

http://www.thelizlibrary.org/fatherless/017.html

This child was born in the 1860s to the fourth wife of a government official. As a young child, he was very timid and afraid of things such as the dark, and often thought that there were thieves hiding in his house in the night.

He was generally a good child, but he did not always follow his parents' rules. He was not a good student, and did not like to study. He did, however, like to read, and on his own read various things that interested him, which often had nothing to do with what he was supposed to be studying. He occasionally got into trouble. For example, when he was still quite small, he started buying cigarettes, which put him into debt to the boy who was selling them to him, so he stole a piece of his brother's jewelry to pay off the debt.

When he was 13 years old, he got married to a 13-year-old girl who could not read or write.

Several years later, when he was 16 years old, and his wife was pregnant, his father died. He later wrote in his biography that on the night his father died, instead of attending to him, he snuck away to another room in the house to have sex with his then-pregnant teenage wife. The baby his wife later gave birth to died after only a few days, and he always felt guilty after that, thinking it had something to do with his own father's death or his lust, because he had awakened his child bride from a sound sleep.

When he was 18 his mother encouraged him to go London to study law and train as a barrister. He did not want to do this at first. He had barely passed his entrance exams to get into college, and had done miserably there. He also had hated the kind of education he had been forced to endure as a child. But finally he relented. He and his wife went to England where he studied law, and while he managed to pass, never felt that he fit in and remained a fairly mediocre student.

After law school, he and his wife returned home, where he worked as a lawyer. When he was in his mid-twenties, he accepted a job doing legal work in a country in Africa. While he was there, he became involved in activism against injustices.

To fight against injustices, he invented a technique of non-violent civil disobedience. It became so successful that he used it over and over again against wrongs he perceived in the educational system, the courts, and the political system. He urged people not to fight directly but to boycott products, to go on strike, to march, and to refuse to pay taxes. Among the many customs and laws he came to abhor and fight against was arranged childhood marriages, which he decided was a cruelty that should not be imposed on children. He hated all forms of child abuse, oppression, organized religion, and even industrialization.

By the end of his long, and rather strange life, he had become famous through his activist work, and for assisting the people of his country to attain independence. He became known throughout the world for the technique of non-violent civil resistance to tyranny, and for his advocacy for education. This eccentric individual who became so well-known and accomplished so much, did so following a childhood that by the standards of today likely would have got him yanked by DCF into foster care, if not juvenile detention or some kind of boot camp for teenage boys. He was, of course,

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi aka Mahatma Gandhi, a boy from a "fatherless home."

Fatherless Child - Expose Number Sixteen

http://www.thelizlibrary.org/fatherless/016.html

This child's mother fled from his biological father just after giving birth, because of the man's cruelty and regular abuse of her. She moved back home to live with her own parents in another state, and obtained a divorce before the child was even a few months old.

His mother had come from a middle-class family and attended a girls' college after high school. While she was there, she had met the child's father, a wealthy man who was six years older than she was. She fell in love and left college after her first year to marry him, but from the honeymoon on, he regularly beat her, flying into jealous rages at the slightest provocation.

Once the child was born, she knew that she had to muster the courage to get away, and get the child away from him. It is unlikely that today, with the father's rights laws the way they are, that she would have succeeded in this endeavor. But fortunately for her and the child, in those days she was able to do so and cut him out of their lives.

Later she remarried a kindly paint salesman, and renamed the child entirely. The child did not learn anything at all about his father until he was a teenager. He had, however, inherited his raging temper, which he had to work hard to control and overcome. But he did so, successfully, thanks in large part to the peaceful and happy family life that his mother was able to give him, and the help and role model that his stepfather and others around provided. In learning to keep himself calm and controlled, the child also developed an exemplary character, including a scrupulous insistence on honesty and integrity for which he became known throughout his life.

The child attended public schools where he was active in sports, especially football, which he later continued in college, where he majored in political science and economics, and then law. After college, he joined the Navy and served in World War II, where he had several brushes with death. Afterward, he entered politics, becoming elected as a Republican to the U.S. House of Representatives, where he served for 13 terms.

A journalist** said of him, "I remember him as a leader, first and foremost. He was the right man for this country, at the right time, in the most extraordinary crisis in our constitutional system since the Civil War."

The U.S. Secretary of State*** said of him, "I think he saved the country."

This child, whose decency, honesty, courage, and unity helped this country heal from a difficult period in its history was the 38th President of the United States,

Gerald R. Ford, a boy from a "fatherless home."

Fatherless Child - Expose Number Fifteen

http://www.thelizlibrary.org/fatherless/015.html

This child did not even know that he had been given a last name until he was an adult, long after he had adopted another one for himself. He was born in a cabin on a tobacco plantation. His mother was a cook. His father took no interest in either the child or his mother, and never lived with either of them. The boy was not formally educated as a young child, and in fact, he was not even permitted to attend school. Instead, he worked.

The child's clothes were ragged. He never had toys, and he did not play. He slept on the floor of his mother's shack, and worked as soon as he was old enough to be useful. Sometimes he carried other children's books to school for them and daydreamed about being able to learn to read. One day his mother found a spelling book, and he studied from it on his own.

When the boy was 10, he was given permission to attend school, provided that he still worked. So he went to work in the salt mines, starting each day at 4 a.m. so that he could go to school in the afternoons. A few years later, he got a job as a household servant, doing the same thing -- working in the mornings and evenings, and going to school in the afternoons. When he was 16, he walked 500 miles to another town in order to attend another school where he would be able to live and study full-time, and be permitted to pay his way there by doing menial tasks.

Early on, he developed a personal philosophy of self reliance. In later life he would say that there was no period of his life that was devoted to play. Every day of his life was occupied in some kind of labor.

But he persevered. He worked, and he excelled in his studies. In fact, he learned so well that after a time he became an instructor at the school.

He married his childhood sweetheart, but when she unexpectedly died, he married again, ultimately having two children.

Subsequently, he established another school for the purpose of educating children like him. He began to write papers and articles, to give speeches, to meet people, to make friends, and to get involved in politics. To raise money for his new school, he wrote an autobiography which was so impressive that he was invited to dine at the White House in Washington, D.C. Wealthy philanthropists read his story, "Up From Slavery", and supported his school. He was invited to tea with the Queen of England. He became an advisor to the president on various matters of national policy, notably education and race relations.

The school he founded is now known as the Tuskeegee Institute. His name, including the last name his mother gave him, and the second last name that he chose for himself, is carved on a monument in his honor. Schoolchildren everywhere in America know who he is:

Booker T. (Taliaferro) Washington, a boy from a "fatherless home."

Fatherless Child - Expose Number Fourteen

http://www.thelizlibrary.org/fatherless/014.html

This child was born on Christmas Day on a farm in England in the 1600s. He never knew his father, who died three months before he was born. His mother remarried a church minister when he was two years old, and they sent the boy off to live with his grandparents, where he was treated like an orphan. The boy was bitter about this, especially after three half-siblings were born. The grandfather with whom he lived was harsh and abusive too, and when the grandfather died when the child was ten, he left him nothing in his will. The boy's stepfather also died about that time, and so he and his grandmother ended up moving back into his mother's household, where he did not get along well with his half-siblings.

The boy had a temper, and apparently also had what we would consider to be "emotional issues". So before long, his mother sent him off to live with another family and attend a school in a town five miles from their home. The boy was not happy. He did not like school. He did not like his situation. When the school reported to his mother that he was "idle" and "inattentive" to his studies, she pulled him out of school to come home and help manage the farm. He hated that too, and proved himself to be quite lazy and untalented at this.

Finally, when he was 17, his mother's brother convinced the mother to let him return to grammar school to try again. This time while at school, he was sent to live with the headmaster. There is not much evidence that he did particularly well at first. He apparently got into a number of schoolyard fights. At some point, though, he started to apply himself, and by the time he graduated -- at an age which was much older than the other students -- he had risen to first in his class. With his uncle's encouragement and help, he entered a university intending to pursue a degree in law, through a program that now would be similar to a work-study financial aid program -- he received a salary by being a servant to other students.

One day, while he was attending the university, he purchased an astrology book, and was dismayed that he did not understand the mathematics in it. Although his major at the university was philosophy, he decided to take some classes in math, and on his own also started reading books in mathematics. He tried trigonometry first, but when he found that he did not understand that, he started with basic math and geometry. Then, once he had mastered the basics, he discovered that math was, finally, something he liked, and also was good at.

In fact, he was so good at it that within a few years, he had learned everything that could be taught in mathematics at the university. He got a job as a professor of mathematics, and before long, had developed the mathematics of the day far beyond what anyone else had done before, laying the foundations for differential and integral calculus.

In his lifetime, through his mathematical work in optics and celestial mechanics, he established the theories, principles, and bases we use today in the modern sciences of physics and astronomy. He is well-known for his Theory of Universal Gravitation and his Laws of Motion. He was the first scientist to demonstrate that the same principles that govern the motion of objects in space also govern the motion of things on Earth. He was the first person in England to be knighted based on scholarly achievement, rather than prowess on the battlefield. He is the author of a book known as the Principia -- recognized as the most important scientific work ever written. Considered by some to be the greatest scientist who ever lived, this late-bloomer, one of the most influential men in all of history, was

Sir Isaac Newton, a boy from a "fatherless home."

Fatherless Child - Expose Number Thirteen

http://www.thelizlibrary.org/fatherless/013.html

This child was born two years before the Revolutionary War in a one-room log house with a loft on a farm in the Virginia wilderness. He was the second of four children in a military family of many decorated soldiers, including his father, but his father died when he was only five. His mother then remarried another soldier, who moved the family to Georgia.

When the child was 13, he went back to Virginia by himself in order to run the family farm. This was, even for the time, quite unusual, but the boy was very self-reliant, capable, and responsible, and became used to being on his own.

Being back in Virginia also gave him the opportunity to attend a very good little school not far from his home. Among other students who attended this school were three future presidents of the United States, one of whom would become a life-long friend.

The boy not only enjoyed his studies, but notwithstanding his young age and responsibilities, also proved himself quite able to run the farm on his own, and actually increased its size and success. In his spare time, he loved to wander in the woods. He liked to go hunting -- he was quite a good shot -- and developed a keen interest in studying the flora and fauna.

At age 17, he attended a local college so that he could continue living on and running his farm. When he was 20, he joined the military, and fought in the Whiskey Rebellion in 1794. He became an army officer, battled in skimishes with Native Americans in the Northwest Territory, and continued his hobbies of hunting and observing wildlife. He also learned to speak several Native American languages.

His eclectic skills became widely appreciated, and one day his old school friend, who as it happens, was now the president, asked him to undertake another mission. This one required intense preparation that included, among other things, the study of cartography and medicine at a university in Pennsylvania.

Upon completing the mission, the child was hailed as a hero across the United States. His success had strengthened U.S. sovereignty across the continent, documented hundreds of new species of animals and plant life, and proved it possible to travel over land to the Pacific ocean. It inspired generations of Americans to push westward to settle the vast frontier, and his expedition to this day remains a cherished example of the American spirit.

This scientist, explorer, military man, pioneer, friend of Thomas Jefferson, leader of the famous Corps of Discovery, and first governor of the Louisiana Territory was

Meriwether Lewis, a boy from a "fatherless home."

Fatherless Child - Expose Number Twelve

http://www.thelizlibrary.org/fatherless/012.html

This child, the fifth child in his family, was born in Virginia in 1807. His parents, who were struggling with debt, were not terribly pleased about the extra mouth to feed.

To make matters worse, the child's mother, although quite beautiful, had always been sickly, and suffered from what we now would call narcolepsy. In fact, she had become so ill several years before the child was born, that she actually had been thought dead, and buried alive in the family burial vault until days later, a sexton bringing flowers heard noises in her coffin and she was rescued.

The child's father had been a well-known war hero and politician, who had fallen on hard times. His business failures and debts caused the family to lose their home. When the child was two years old, his father was thrown into jail because of these debts. Then, when the child was 11, his father completely abandoned the family and left the United States altogether. In his later life, the child resolved never to succomb to his own father's weaknesses.

The child himself, like his mother, was handsome but sickly. His mother, who shouldered the burdens of her large family alone, nevertheless imparted to the child the values of her strong religious convictions, which he carried his entire life, as well as a sense of honor, duty and loyalty to his home.

His mother home-schooled the child until he was about 12. At that point he entered a small local school, where he studed Greek, Latin, algebra, and geometry. He excelled in his math studies, and was widely regarded by his teachers as a polite, hardworking, and conscientious student.

When the child was 17, he decided to enter a military academy. He did so well there, notably in math and engineering, that he graduated second in his class with high honors and no demerits. He married his second cousin with whom he eventually had seven healthy and successful children.

In the military, his first assignment was with the army's corps of engineers. Later, during Mexican War, he started to gain a reputation for repeated extraordinary exploits. He repeatedly was honored for "gallant and meritorious conduct". Ultimately he rose up through the ranks of the military, until he became considered to be the nation's best military officer and became an advisor to the President of the United States.

When the a major war threatened the country, the President called upon him and asked him to accept appointment as the country's top general, leading the American army. But it was not to be. The child agonized over his choices, and wrote to his sister. In his letter to her, he said:

"With all my devotion to the Union and the feeling of loyalty and duty of an American citizen, I have not been able to make up my mind to raise my hand against my relatives, my children, my home. I have therefore resigned my commission in the Army, and save in defense of my native State, with the sincere hope that my poor services may never be needed, I hope I may never be called on to draw my sword."

The rest, of course... is history. Although he put his loyalty to home and family above that of his country, because of his accomplishments and remarkable character, to this day this child nevertheless is remembered and revered as one of America's greatest generals. This son of the state of the South was

Robert E. Lee, a boy from a "fatherless home."

Fatherless Child - Expose Number Eleven

http://www.thelizlibrary.org/fatherless/011.html

This child, one of 8 siblings (6 sisters and 1 brother), was born in the mid-18th century to an ambitious and successful colonial mapmaker, surveyor and landowner, who died when the child was 14. His father, who had never received any formal education himself, believed himself to be descended from Welsh kings, and wanted his son to become well-educated in European culture.

When a wealthy friend of the father's died, the child's father inherited a large amount of land and was named guardian of the friend's orphaned children. The child thus started his schooling at age 5, at the private school with classically-trained tutors that his father set up for the children of his deceased friend.

When his own father died, the child inherited his entire estate, and so was not only well-provided for financially, but also able to continue his education as he preferred. His interests and his ideas in many respects veered considerably away from those of his father, and he sought out his own mentors. The inheritance he had received gave him an unusual amount of personal autonomy, and so he left home at age 14 to live and study with one of them. It does not appear that he had a great sense of loss about his father's death, nor did he apparently suffer from being separated for most of the time from his mother and siblings. On the contrary, it appears that he deliberately left what he considered to be a crowded and unpleasant domestic situation.

What the child was most attached to were his studies. The child was a voracious reader, and actually loved to study, sometimes studying 15 hours a day. He continued this habit throughout his life, periodically immersing himself in a wide variety of subjects, including philosophy, art, the various sciences, mathematics, Latin, Greek, horsemanship, agriculture, history, and architecture. He entered college at age 17, which he finished two years later, and then spent the next five years in the study of law and enlightenment philosophy.

When he was in his twenties, he married a young widow whose first husband had died when she was only 19. Ultimately they had six children together, although only two survived to adulthood. The marriage lasted for ten years until her death after the birth of the sixth child. Later there were rumors, which continue to this day, that he had a number of other children as well out of wedlock with another woman but these rumors are hotly disputed.

During his lifetime, this child brought the liberal ideas he amassed during his considerable and eclectic education into his lifetime career in law and politics. He participated in the Continental Congress before and through the Revolutionary War. He wrote the first draft as primary author of one of the most famous pieces of American political literature of all time. He is widely revered as the promoter of radical ideals of Republican egalitarianism and religious freedom upon which the country was founded. He also was singlehandedly responsible for the greatest-ever expansion of terroritory of the United States. Of all his accomplishments, far too many to list in full, he was perhaps proudest that he built a university, which still stands today.

This child, America's third President, and considered to be our most influential Founding Father, was

Thomas Jefferson, a boy from a "fatherless home."

Fatherless Child - Expose Number Ten

http://www.thelizlibrary.org/fatherless/010.html

This child was born in 1865 and grew up in Missouri. He was the sixth of seven children. Life was poor and hard. His sister died when he was three, and his brother died when he was six. When he was eight, 24 people in the little town where he lived died from the measles. He himself was sickly. When he was eleven, in fifth grade, his father died of pneumonia, and at that point he had to leave school to help support the family.

He got a job in a printer's shop as what was then called a "printer's devil." That was a boy who ran errands, cleaned the shop, delivered papers, and generally did whatever his boss told him to do. Four years later, when he was 15, he had worked his way up to the job of typesetter. Perhaps it was doing this job, which required him to read carefully, that helped him become good at writing. Here and there he started writing editorials for the paper.

In some ways, his early childhood work experiences in the printer's shop were similar to those of the famous Benjamin Franklin, more than a hundred years earlier. Stories about the industrious and successful Ben Franklin regularly were held up by adults as a role model for children, and Franklin's sayings were printed in the newspaper the child worked for. In his later life, this child would say that "Benjamin Franklin ruined the childhood of every American boy!"

When he was older, this child went west to seek his fortune. He really did not want to be a typesetter but he worked at that job in different cities. Other jobs he held during his lifetime were as a failed prospector for gold, a travel writer for various newspapers, a failed inventor, a political cartoonist, an entertainer, and a publisher whose company went into bankruptcy.

He met and married a young woman from a well-off family, and invested her money badly. When he had money, himself however, he fancied himself a businessman, but he also was a spendthrift. It is said that he inherited his mother's sense of humor, and his father's lack of business acumen.

At different times in his life he was deeply in debt, although he always worked to pay back his creditors. Integrity and an honest character were of the highest importance to him, although it was sometimes unclear to others when he said things whether he was serious or kidding.

During his lifetime he lived in different countries of the world, and became just as famous as that childhood "thorn in his side", the successful Ben Franklin. By the end of his life, he too had become one of America's most beloved icons, and what he had to say on nearly every topic -- especially politics, justice, and equal rights -- was quoted around the world.

It's probable you already know his stories. He wrote many of them under a pseudonym that has become the world's most famous pen name.

This child -- who by the way also worked as a young man as a steamboat captain on the Mississippi River -- was

Samuel Clemens, aka Mark Twain, a boy from a "fatherless home."

Fatherless Child - Expose Number Nine

http://www.thelizlibrary.org/fatherless/009.html

This child was born in Ohio in 1822, into a middle-class home, eleven weeks after his father died. He was his mother's fifth child, but only he and one older sister survived to adulthood. Two siblings had died before he was born, and when he was two years old, his 9-year-old brother died in a skating accident. His mother's brother helped out financially, and even lived with the family for a time.

His mother became overprotective, perhaps because this child was delicate, or perhaps because she had lost three children and he was her youngest. She would not let the child leave the house to attend school, or to play with other boys. Instead she and his older sister home-schooled him. His mother taught him to read and write. His sister, who historians now recognize as having a brilliant intellect, was in fact the child's primary companion until he was 14.

At age 14, he went to a boarding school, where he excelled at his studies. He was a serious student who liked to keep a journal, a habit he kept through the remainder of his life. In his journal he wrote that he would strive to always "preserve a reputation for honesty and benevolence." He also resolved to stop laughing so much. His favorite pasttime activities became fishing, playing chess, and reading novels, or as he called it "reading trash".

At age 16, he started college, and at age 20, he graduated from college as class valedictorian. At that point he wanted to learn German, French, and prepare for the study of law. So he went to live with his older sister, who by was now married, so that she could help him in these pursuits. At age 21, he was accepted into Harvard law school. The same uncle helped him with the tuition and living expenses.

In the beginning of his career as a young lawyer, he did not enjoy the practice of law. However, within five years he and a friend moved to Cincinnati and started their own law firm. He partitioned off a corner of the office for his bedroom. He became interested in the Literary Club there, then joined the Temperance Movement and started making influential friends.

When he was 30, he married a 21-year-old woman who his mother had picked out for him, and introduced to him when he had been 15. She was a college graduate -- which was very unusual in those days, and he was delighted with her when he made reacquaintance as an adult. He wrote in his journal that "A better wife I never hoped to have." In fact the two of them shared many interests, and had a solid marriage, and ultimately, 8 children together, although three died in childhood.

When the Civil War broke out, he joined to serve for four years, during which time he became interested in politics and in the new Republican party. Before even finishing service in the army, he was elected to serve in his state legislature. Following the war, he was elected governor of his state.

During his long political career, he worked for temperance, and fought against political corruption, including against the system of political spoils, a system of giving government jobs to former campaign supporters. He disagreed with many in his party on matters of integrity, and in favor of the people's welfare, such as when he opposed post-Civil War carpet-bagging, and worked in support of labor rights. He also worked against the corrupt customhouse in New York City, against the Tweed political machine, against partisanship in general , and against inflationary economic practices by getting paper money back on the gold standard.

To those in the Republican party who disagreed with some of his choices, he said, in his inauguration speech as the 19th President of the United States: "He serves his party best who serves the country best."

Rutherford B. Hayes, a boy from a "fatherless home."

Dad attacks wife, takes son (Kuna, Idaho)

Dad attacks wife, takes son (Kuna, Idaho)

Kuna father accused of attacking wife and taking their son

STATESMAN STAFF

Published: 06/22/09

KUNA - Oscar Contreras Jr., 27, is charged with attempted rape, domestic assault and battery and false imprisonment. He is in jail and set to be arraigned Monday in District Court.

His estranged wife, 25, told deputies that he came to her Kuna home Saturday night and demanded they reconcile. The couple, married eight years, recently separated. When she refused, he got angry and pushed her to the ground. She tried to call 911, but he took the phone, forced her into a room and refused to let her leave. Sunday morning, he attempted to rape her, but she fought back, and he left with their 14-month-old son.

Deputies worked with friends and family members to arrange a meeting with Contreras. About 12:45 p.m., Contreras was taken into custody at a Meridian restaurant. The child was returned to his mother.

Dad injures 4-month-old baby; she's on life support (Mesquite, Texas)

Dad injures 4-month-old baby; she's on life support (Mesquite, Texas)

Man accused of injuring 4-month-old daughter in Mesquite

1:09 PM CT 01:18 PM CDT on Monday, June 22, 2009

By EMILY TSAO / The Dallas Morning News

A man has been accused of injuring his 4-month-old daughter who remains on life support today, Mesquite police said.

Franzwa Miller, 23, has been charged with injury to a child and bail was set at $250,000, police said.

Officers responded to a report of a child not breathing early Saturday in the 2300 block of Bamboo Street. The girl was taken to Children's Medical Center Dallas.

An 18-month-old girl was also removed from the home by Child Protective Services, police said.
Authorities said they would provide additional details later this afternoon.

Dad tries to kill wife and child on Father's Day (Mission, Texas)

Dad tries to kill wife and child on Father's Day (Mission, Texas)

Father's Day chase ends with arrest in Mission

By Katie Lopez

Tuesday, June 23, 2009 at 9:47 a.m.

A Mission man is behind bars after he allegedly tried to kill his wife and child on Father's Day.
According to police, Gabriel Segovia punched his wife and then threw her and his 3-year-old daughter in his truck and took off.

While trying to get away from police, Segovia reportedly had his daughter on his lap and is accused of holding a knife in his hand.

Police say he kept repeating he was going to kill them both.

Segovia stopped and fled into the brush but was caught after authorities set up a perimeter.
The Mission man's daughter was unharmed.

Police charged Segovia with evading arrest and aggravaed assault with a deadly weapon.

He's being held on a $400,000 dollar bond.

Custodial dad starves child (Chandler, Arizona)

Custodial dad starves child (Chandler, Arizona)

Valley dad of 'severely malnourished' 2-year-old sentenced
Reported by: Brent Roulier
Reported by: Deborah Stocks Last Update: 6:25 am

A Chandler father has been sentenced to 15 years of supervised probation after officials discovered that his 2-year-old son weighed less than 13 pounds. Edmundo Munoz, 31, was sentenced Tuesday. Previously, Munoz had pleaded guilty to one count of child abuse. The boy's stepmother, Morgan Lege, 25, had pleaded guilty to one count of attempted child abuse.

Sentencing for Lege has been postponed until August. The couple was arrested June 18, 2008 after a two-month police investigation found that the 27-month-old child was suffering from malnutrition and parental neglect, according to a Chandler police report.

The toddler was taken to a Chandler hospital April 26, 2008 by Lege, where medical staff performed CPR and gave the child medications to revive him. He was then flown to the Desert Banner Medical Center Pediatric Intensive Care Unit.

There, staff noticed the boy weighed 12 pounds, 12 ounces, which is well below the normal weight for a child of that age.

They also saw indications the child was neglected and police were called to investigate. The boy was placed into protective custody.

The police investigation showed the child's condition was not due to any medical causes but to severe malnutrition and parental neglect, according to the report. Court documents show that during a police interview Munoz and Lege admitted to skipping medical appointments. In a police interview, police say the couple "admitted to limiting the boy's food intake because he would eat so much he would vomit. The document also states that Munoz admitted to hiding the boy's food trays at the hospital because he felt the staff was feeding him too much. From his birth until 5 months, the child lived with his biological mother. He apparently maintained a normal weight at that time.

From then until his hospitalization on April 26, 2008 the child was in the care of his father and stepmother.

While the child has been in protective custody, he has gained weight and continues to improve and move up the growth chart.

Dad assaults 32-day-old baby (Warren County, Ohio)

Dad assaults 32-day-old baby (Warren County, Ohio)

Father Convicted Of Abusing Month-Old Child
Web Produced By: Andrew Weast Last Update: 6/23 9:41 pm

Joseph Ramirez A man charged with causing serious injuries to his 32-day-old child was convicted in a Warren County courtroom on Monday.

Joseph Hector Ramirez was convicted on one count of felonious assault and one count of child endangering.

The infant was brought to the Atrium Medical Center with a skull fracture, subdural hemorrhaging, edema and significant bruising. The little girl's injuries are still severe and it is unlikely that she will ever fully recover.

“How someone could be so cruel to a small, defenseless child I will never understand,” Warren County Prosecutor Rachel Hutzel said. “Hopefully, Mr. Ramirez will be in prison for a long time, and not able to abuse any more children,” Hutzel added.

Both counts are felonies of the second degree and carry a maximum sentence of eight years in prison. Sentencing was delayed until the court could do a pre-sentence investigation

Dad molests, assaults two-month-old baby (Carrollton, Georgia)

Dad molests, assaults two-month-old baby (Carrollton, Georgia)

Father Charged With Assaulting His Child
Casey Todd Charged With Molesting His 6-Week-Old Child
POSTED: 4:01 pm EDT June 23, 2009
UPDATED: 5:52 pm EDT June 23, 2009

CARROLLTON, Ga. -- A Carroll County man is charged with molesting and seriously hurting his 6-week-old child.

Casey Todd, 27, was arrested last week at a home in Carrollton after the child was rushed to the hospital with serious injuries.

CBS Atlanta spoke with great aunt of the baby's mother.

Barbara Cox is so furious she could barely contain her rage.

"I am so disgusted. I wish I could get a hold of him,” said Cox. "[I would] beat the hell out of him."

Todd fathered the child of Cox's grand-niece and now Todd is accused of molesting his own two-month old daughter.

"Vile things. If you could've seen that baby when they brought her to the ambulance-you wouldn't believe it," said Cox.

The Carroll County Sheriff's Department said it all happened a week ago Monday.

An investigator told CBS Atlanta the uncle of the baby girl had just come home from work early that morning and found his distraught sister with her badly injured child.

They called 911 and when investigators arrived they found a baby who had been assaulted in the most brutal way.

The sheriff's department said the little girl suffered a fractured skull, broken leg and had been sexually abused.

"You can imagine a month old baby being put through that? That's rough on the mother, on everybody," said Cox.

The sheriff's department confirmed the baby's 22-year-old mother was asleep at the time of the assault.

She was not charged.

Cox said the entire family is trying to recover from the unspeakable and the unthinkable.

The sheriff's department says the baby is recovering and is in the custody of the Division of Family and Children Services.

Todd is charged with aggravated child molestation, aggravated battery, and first degree cruelty to a child.

Dad fractures skull of five-month-old (San Antonio, Texas)

Dad fractures skull of five-month-old (San Antonio, Texas)

Father charged in infant's head injury

By Robert Crowe - Express-News

A 29-year-old South Side man has been charged in connection with head injuries his baby suffered this week, police said.

Leonard Michael Garza remains jailed on a $75,000 bond on a charge of injury to a child-serious bodily injury.

Police said they suspect Garza injured the 5-month-old boy Monday, after the mother left to a restaurant. When the woman returned to the 200 block of Burcham 10 minutes later, Garza told her something had gone wrong with the child, police said.

According to the warrant, Garza had used heroin shortly before the mother stepped out of the home in the 200 block of Burcham.

When she noticed the child appeared to be dying, she asked Garza to call 911. The baby was flown to University Hospital, where doctors diagnosed him with a skull fracture, police said.
While the mother and other relatives visited the hospital, Garza remained at home and refused to answer phone calls, police said. After relatives gave consent to search the home, police officers found Garza hiding in a closet.

He was arrested on city warrants and jailed before authorities filed the current charge. The boy's mother also was arrested on city warrants. She told authorities that Garza had a history of abusing her and the child, police said.

Dad jailed on Father's Day for putting girl in choke hold (Nampa, Idaho)

Dad jailed on Father's Day for putting girl in choke hold (Nampa, Idaho)

Nampa dad jailed on Father's Day child injury charge

Jon Meyer

Updated 14 hours 42 minutes ago

NAMPA — Nampa police took a man into custody on Father's Day after they say he put his 12-year-old daughter in a choke hold.

Nampa Police Department Sgt. Rob Wiggins said suspect Anton Philipp, 51, was intoxicated and got upset with his daughter for not spending time with him on Father's Day when she came home with her mom from a friend's residence. Wiggins said he put the girl in a "choke hold."

Officers were called to a home near the intersection of Midland Boulevard and Lone Star Road about 7:30 p.m. Sunday. They made contact with Philipp and discovered the mother and daughter were at a neighbor's home. After finding and interviewing them, Philipp was taken into custody and booked into the Canyon County jail on a charge of injury to a child.

Paramedics responded as a precaution, but the girl did not require hospitalization

Dad with summer visitation beats boy unconscious (Worcester, Massachusetts)

Dad with summer visitation beats boy unconscious (Worcester, Massachusetts)

Father accused of beating boy unconscious
By Scott J. Croteau TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

WORCESTER — For eight weeks, 7-year-old Nathaniel Turner was allegedly mentally and physically abused by his father, according to authorities. The alleged assaults ended on Father’s Day with what police described as a brutal attack that left the boy in grave condition.

His father, Leslie G. Schuler, and his father’s live-in girlfriend, Tiffany Hyman, both of 13 Arline St., will be in court this afternoon to face a series of assault charges.

It was just a month or so ago that Mr. Schuler received a court order allowing him to have summer custody of Nathaniel, who for most of his life lived with his grandmother in Alabama.

The boy is in grave condition, police and relatives of the boy’s birth mother said today while awaiting Mr. Schuler’s arraignment in Central District Court.Investigators from the Police Department Special Crimes Division were called to St. Vincent Hospital yesterday morning after Mr. Schuler and Ms. Hyman arrived there with Nathaniel. The boy was unconscious, police said.“Apparently the boy had suffered substantial injuries throughout his body,” police spokesman Sgt. Kerry F. Hazelhurst said today. “He had recent bruising all over his chest, stomach, neck and face area. The child was unconscious and unresponsive.”

Investigators, including Detectives Donna M. Brissette and Laura J. LaLiberte, interviewed Mr. Schuler and Ms. Hyman and learned that a series of assaults had occurred over the eight weeks since the boy came to the city from Alabama. The most recent attack took place Sunday, according to authorities.Police arrested Mr. Schuler, 36, and Ms. Hyman, 28, after the two spoke with the detectives.

Mr. Schuler was charged with four counts of assault and battery on a child with injuries, three counts of assault and battery on a child causing serious bodily injuries, assault to murder and two counts of assault with a dangerous weapon.

Ms. Hyman was charged with two counts of assault and battery on a child causing serious bodily injuries. While it appears she did not assault the child, police said, she could have intervened and stopped the abuse.

Relatives of the boy at the courthouse this morning described Nathaniel as a handsome, free-spirited boy. He reportedly had been sleeping on the floor of a bedroom after Mr. Schuler removed all his toys and furniture as a disciplinary measure for disrespect, according to investigators. The boy was also allegedly whipped with a belt and beaten several times, the most serious attack coming Sunday, police said.

Lisa Carter, cousin of the birth mother, said Mr. Schuler could have dropped the boy off at any of the relatives’ homes in the city. “He could have dropped him (off) to us if he couldn’t handle him. He has to kill the kid,” she said. “He’s only had the kid not only a month, and now this happened.”

The birth mother did not want to speak to investigators, and family refused to give her name to reporters. Nathaniel’s family said Mr. Schuler always knew he was the father of the little boy, but about a month ago received a court order to have DNA testing done to prove it.

Mr. Schuler then received a court order to have summer custody of the child. Nathaniel had been living in Alabama with his grandmother, who has legal custody.

The birth mother was taking care of the child on weekends, but Mr. Schuler did not allow her to see her son recently, according to the family.

Dad charged with pointing gun at son's head (Allentown, Pennsylvania)

Dad charged with pointing gun at son's head (Allentown, Pennsylvania)

Man charged with pointing a gun at his son's head

June 16, 2009

MOORE TOWNSHIP - A man faces child endangerment charges after police said he held a gun to his son's head Saturday afternoon.

In addition to child endangerment, Richard Harold Horn Jr., 46, of 2298 W. Best Road, Moore Township, is charged with terroristic threats, reckless endangerment and harassment.

He was arraigned Saturday before District Judge William Zaun and is in Northampton County Prison under $6,500 bail.

According to court records: At 5 p.m., Moore Township police were called to a home at 886 Point Phillips Road for a report of a threat. They spoke with Dylan Horn, no age provided, who told police his father was intoxicated and threatened him. Dylan Horn said he was at the house on W. Best Road when his father was arguing with his girlfriend, Tammy Beers. Dylan Horn said his father came into his room holding the gun and pointed it at his head. Dylan Horn said he then left the house and called police.

Dad pleads guilty to breaking bones of 3-month-old son (Lafayette, Indiana)

Dad pleads guilty to breaking bones of 3-month-old son (Lafayette, Indiana)

Father pleads to injuring son

Lucas VanNote faces possible 20 year sentence

Updated: Tuesday, 16 Jun 2009, 4:56 PM EDT
Published : Tuesday, 16 Jun 2009, 4:33 PM EDT

Sue Scott

LAFAYETTE, Ind (WLFI) - A former West Lafayette man pleaded guilty rather than face a jury.

21-year-old Lucas VanNote of Veedersburg admitted he intentionally injured his three-month-old son. He pleaded guilty on Monday to Neglect of a Dependent, Resulting in Serious Bodily Injury, a Class B felony. His trial was scheduled to start Tuesday in Superior Court II.

VanNote was arrested after the boy's mother brought the child to the hospital to be treated for a swollen leg in April 2008. Prosecutor Pat Harrington said the baby was taken to Riley Children's Hospital in Indianapolis where doctors told investigators the child had several fractures at various stages of healing in his legs and arms.

VanNote faces up to 20 years in prison when he's sentenced in August for Neglect of a Dependent Resulting in Serious Bodily Injury.

Harrington said VanNote was arrested about two weeks ago on charges of resisting arrest and trespassing. He is accused of trespassing at Country Villa Estates, where he once lived.