Carnegie: "The organ lessen the pain of the sermon!"

Carnegie was not very religious, in fact, he may have been an agnostic.  Yet, he gave money to purchase 4,092 church organs in the United States at a cost of $3,604,719.  Pennsylvania received 1,351 organs, Ohio 440 and New York 290.  It is said Nevada got one.  Not sure about Illinois.

Other countries got 3,597 organs at a cost of $2,643,593.  England and Scotland received the most, 3,124.  The grand total to everyone was 7,689 organs for a total cost of $6,248,311.75.

If he didn't believe in God, why would he do this?  He did believe in a Creator of some kind and wanted to reconcile religion and science.  What he didn't like were the oppressive creeds handed down by various groups and each group claiming they had the only truth.

When the Robert Burns statue in Garfield Park was dedicated, Andrew Carnegie was invited.  From his Skibo castle in Scotland his telegram read:  "It is a great disappointment that I cannot be with you during the ceremony of unveiling the statue to the immortal Bard, that child of pure genius, the great Democrat who, proclaiming the 'Royalty of Man', struck down Rank with one hand and the old hard Theology with the other, dispelling the false conceptions of a Heavenly Father who sent 'ane (one) to heaven and ten to hell a' for his glory.  I feel that he also gave us the great rule of life, 'Thine own reproach alone do fear'. In greater degree than any man who ever lived he became the embodiment of the national spirit of his country.  There cannot be too many statues erected to the memory of Burns."

                                                                                  Andrew Carnegie

So, why did he give money to purchase church organs?  He said:  "To lessen the pain of the sermon."

On another occasion he said:  "You can't always trust what the pulpit says, but you can always depend upon what the organ says."  You decide!

Carnegie Libraries in Illinois

Illinois was granted 105 Carnegie libraries, mostly in small communities.  Chicago had none.  Indiana received the most in the U.S. with 155 and California came in second with 121.  Scotland received 195 library buildings.

In time, I would like to visit all the Carnegie libraries in Illinois.  Here are some of those I have see thus far:  Spring Valley, LaSalle, Geneva, Streator, Jacksonville, Sycamore, and Onarga.  I think there are a couple more, but I couldn't find my list tonight.

Several years ago, my Grandson was playing in a hockey tournament in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and I found they have a beautiful Carnegie library.  This one had a fireplace and a water fountain in the lobby.  The fountain was later removed.

If you have a Carnegie library in your community, please let me know.

In total 2,500 library buildings were built around the world and a total of $60,000,000 was spent on these library buildings.

I will be in Pekin, Illinois, on May 11, speaking to the Tazewell County Genealogical and Historical Society.  Pekin has a beautiful, new library.  The library given by Carnegie was demolished to make way for the new building.  The same thing happened in Brookfield, Illinois, and many others.

Andrew Carnegie and his libaries

Andrew Carnegie became the world's richest man and he wanted to repay humanity for his success.  One way of doing that was to build libraries.  When he was a young man and working for the Pennsylvania Central railroad, a man by the name of J. B. Anderson was important in operating the railroad.  Mr. Anderson had a personal library of some 5,000 books and he invited young Andrew into his home to read and study.  Carnegie never forgot.

In 1899, Carnegie wrote to his widow who was living then in Manhattan, Kansas.  He told her, he wanted to do something in honor of his old friend in the way of a memorial.  Mrs. Anderson replied that the library was now housed in the College of Emporia but under less than acceptable conditions.  Carnegie had a library built to house the Anderson collection.  I wonder if it is still standing?  If anyone reads this in Emporia, Kansas, please reply.

Many of the Carnegie libraries in Illinois have been destroyed, but some are still standing and in use.  Whenever, I drive through a new town, I try to always look for a Carnegie library.  In Oklahoma City, where I grew up,  there was  a Carnegie library which I often used.  However it was badly damaged in the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in 1995. I don't know its current status.

More than 2,500 libraries were built with Carnegie money, 1,689 built in the United States.  600 in Great Britain and Ireland, 125 in Canada and others in Australia, New Zealand, Serbia and the Caribbean.  The first library was opened in his hometown of Dunfermline, Scotland.  The motto over the front door was "Let there be light."

More on the same subject tomorrow.