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."
Oct 25, 2009
Oct 18, 2009
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."
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."
Oct 11, 2009
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."
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."
Oct 4, 2009
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."
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."
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