John McDonogh

John McDonogh
Born (1779-12-29)December 29, 1779
Died October 26, 1850(1850-10-26) (aged 70)
Occupation Trader, real estate speculator
Net worth USD $2 million at the time of his death (approximately 1/1278 of US GNP)[1]

John McDonogh (29 December 1779–26 October 1850) was a United States entrepreneur and philanthropist, described as miserly, controversial, and eccentric.

He is best known for endowing public education in two major American cities—New Orleans and Baltimore.

Life and career

McDonogh was born in Baltimore and entered the shipping business there. In 1800 his employers sent him as supercargo on a ship to Liverpool, England, to procure a cargo of goods for the Louisiana trade. He was successful, and after a second such voyage decided to make his home in New Orleans. Establishing a store and engaging in the "commission and shipping business," he prospered there.[2][3]

In 1818, he was a candidate for the U.S. Senate. After he lost that election, he left New Orleans and settled across the Mississippi River, establishing the town of McDonoghville, now called McDonogh, which is in present-day Algiers and Gretna.[2][4] The site of his McDonoghville home has long since been eroded into the Mississippi River.

The young McDonogh was mentioned as having unsuccessfully courted Micaela Almonester, who went on to become the Baroness Pontalba, one of the most important figures in New Orleans history; however, there are no documented sources of this rumor. He was also rebuffed in courtship later in life.[3] A failure to marry and the loss of the Senate race may have contributed to a life which has been described as reclusive. William H. Seymour, a local and near-contemporary chronicler, described him in 1896 as having been an "eccentric philanthropist" who "for twenty-two long years toiled" within the walls of his "somber dwelling."[5]

McDonogh was a workaholic and worked long hours almost until the time of his death, administering his vast land holdings, which were believed to be the largest (but not the most valuable) of any private individual in the world in 1850 when he died. His land holdings entirely surrounded the rapidly growing city of New Orleans and elsewhere in southeast Louisiana.[2][6]

Slaveholding and manumission

McDonogh was a slaveholder. In 1822 he devised a manumission scheme by which his slaves could buy their freedom. The process took about 15 years; thus he was able to profit from their labor before he set them free.[7] McDonogh was also active in, and contributed to, the American Colonization Society, which enabled freed black slaves to emigrate back to Africa.[4][7] McDonogh used the Society to provide passage to Liberia for many of his former slaves.[8]

Legacy

John McDonogh Statue, Lafayette Square, New Orleans, Louisiana

Although during his life McDonogh was an infamous miser,[9] he left the bulk of his fortune—close to $2 million[10]—to the cities of Baltimore and New Orleans for the purpose of building public schools for poor children—specifically, white and freed black children. This was unprecedented, and proved controversial. His heirs contested the will, and the case, McDonogh's Executors v. Murdoch, went to the U.S. Supreme Court.[11] This delayed execution of the will until 1858,[7] with New Orleans receiving a settlement of $704,440.[4]

Baltimore already had a substantial public school system, but McDonogh's will also stipulated the creation of a "school farm" for underprivileged boys outside of the city. McDonogh School in Owings Mills, Maryland, founded in 1873, was the result.

The New Orleans public school system had been established in 1841,[12] but the McDonogh Fund facilitated major expansion. Eventually over 30 schools were built, most emblazoned with his name and a number. By the early 1970s there were 20 McDonogh schools remaining in New Orleans.[12] In the 1980s and 1990s, many of those were renamed in a movement to remove the names of slaveholders from New Orleans' public schools. The following John McDonogh schools are still in operation, post-Katrina: John McDonogh High School and McDonogh #7, #15, #26, #28, #32, #35, and #42.[9]

McDonogh's will proved difficult to administer because of the large number of properties involved, many of which were rented. Also, McDonogh had stipulated the properties to be a perpetual trust and that no properties could ever be sold. The trustees eventually got a court ruling allowing them to sell off the property. Money from the trust funded schools for about 100 years, although because of population growth the estate was not sufficient to cover the entire school systems expenses.[2][13] [14]

John McDonogh's Rules for My Guidance in Life

Gravesite and annual commemorations

After McDonogh died in 1850, he was buried alongside his slaves in the McDonogh Cemetery (now known as the McDonoghville Cemetery) on his plantation in present-day Gretna, Louisiana. In 1860, his remains were exhumed and re-buried in the Green Mount Cemetery in Baltimore.

In 1945, John McDonogh's remains were again exhumed and re-buried, this time on the campus of McDonogh School in Owings Mills, Maryland. McDonogh rests there to this day, under a monument on which his rules for living are inscribed. The same monument had marked McDonogh's grave in Baltimore; it was transported to the McDonogh School campus in 1945 as well.

In return for his legacy, all that McDonogh asked was "that it be permitted annually for children to plant and water a few flowers around [his] grave." Since 1875, the students at McDonogh School have honored this wish in the school's annual Founder's Day ceremony.[15]

McDonogh No. 26 School is the last school in New Orleans which honors this tradition. In their annual John McDonogh Day ceremony, students place flowers on the cenotaph in honor of McDonogh at the site of his former tomb in the McDonoghville Cemetery.[16]

See also

Notes and references

  1. ↑ Klepper, Michael; Gunther, Michael (1996), The Wealthy 100: From Benjamin Franklin to Bill Gates—A Ranking of the Richest Americans, Past and Present, Secaucus, New Jersey: Carol Publishing Group, p. xiii, ISBN 978-0-8065-1800-8, OCLC 33818143
  2. 1 2 3 4 Allan, William (1886). Life and Work of John Mcdonogh. Baltimore: I. Friedenwald. 152545752.
  3. 1 2 "Biography of McDonogh, John, Orleans Parish, Louisiana". LAGenWeb Archives. Retrieved 2006-04-29. (subscription required (help)). Archived January 16, 2005, at the Wayback Machine.
  4. 1 2 3 "McDonogh Neighborhood Snapshot". Greater New Orleans Community Data Center. Retrieved 2006-04-29. Archived June 5, 2013, at the Wayback Machine.
  5. ↑ Seymour, William H. (1896). The story of Algiers, now Fifth District of New Orleans, 1718-1896. The past and the present. (PDF) (Limited ed.). Algiers, LA: Algiers Democrat Publishing Company. LCCN 48041591.
  6. ↑ Taylor, George Rogers (1951). The Transportation Revolution, 1815-1860. New York, Toronto: Rinehart & Co. p. 393. ISBN 978-0-87332-101-3<There were several millionaires at the time in the U.S. John Jacob Astor's estate was valued at $20 million in 1846.>
  7. 1 2 3 Grailhe, Alexandre (1852(?)). Mémoire à plaider devant la cour suprème de Louisiane, pour les villes de la Nouvelle-Orléans et de Baltimore, dans le procès sur le testament de M. McDonogh (cited in International League of Antiquarian Booksellers on-line catalogue). Retrieved 2006-04-29. Check date values in: |date= (help)
  8. ↑ McDonogh, John (1898). James T. Edwards, ed. Some interesting papers of John McDonogh, chiefly concerning the Louisiana purchase and the Liberian colonization. McDonogh, MD: Printed by boys of McDonogh School. LCCN 12012540.
  9. 1 2 "Blake Pontchartrain, New Orleans Know-It-All". Gambit Weekly. Retrieved 2006-04-29.
  10. ↑ The amount of $2 million in the year 1850 adjusted for inflation to the year 2000 would be equivalent to approximately $40 million based on the Consumer Price Index, or more than $7 billion in terms of relative share of the Gross Domestic Product. – "What Is Its Relative Value in US Dollars?" (calculator). Economic History Services. Retrieved 2006-05-14.
  11. ↑ "McDonogh's Ex'rs v. Murdoch, 56 U.S. 367 (1853)". Justia.com / US Supreme Court Center. Retrieved 2006-04-29.
  12. 1 2 "History of New Orleans Public Schools". New Orleans Public Schools. Archived from the original on 2005-12-14. Retrieved 2006-04-29.
  13. ↑ McDonogh, John (1851). The last will and testament of John McDonogh, late of MacDonoghville, state of Louisiana. New Orleans: Printed at the job office of The Daily Delta. LCCN 2002553168.
  14. ↑ Ciravolo, G. Leighton (2002). The legacy of John McDonogh. Lafayette LA: Center for Louisiana Studies, University of Louisiana at Lafayette. ISBN 1-887366-48-2.
  15. ↑ John McDonogh's Grave, from the website of McDonogh School. The School maintains an archive of past Founder Day events.
  16. ↑ "John McDonogh Day".

Further reading

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