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."
Showing posts with label Liz Library. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Liz Library. Show all posts
Dec 27, 2009
Dec 20, 2009
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."
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."
Dec 13, 2009
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."
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."
Dec 6, 2009
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."
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."
Nov 29, 2009
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."
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."
Nov 22, 2009
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."
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."
Nov 15, 2009
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."
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."
Nov 8, 2009
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."
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."
Nov 1, 2009
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."
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."
Oct 25, 2009
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."
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 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."
Sep 27, 2009
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."
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."
Sep 20, 2009
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."
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."
Sep 13, 2009
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."
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."
Sep 6, 2009
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."
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."
Aug 30, 2009
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."
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."
Aug 23, 2009
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."
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."
Aug 16, 2009
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."
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."
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