John Wanamaker

“ Let the young fellow of good ancestry never forget that he starts with what the lack of to many another is a lifelong handicap. It is a great thing for any man to be well-born.
Isaiah Vansant Williamson found in his early years that he had much to be proud of in his ancestry, and doubtless his resolve not to do anything to tarnish the memory of their honorable and useful lives held him firmly to the upright course of life that marks every footstep of his long and busy days. ”

“ The man most talked about in Philadelphia, when Isaiah Williamson first came to town, was Stephen Girard—the merchant and mariner, who stood first on the roll of its eminent citizens. Girard's vast wealth and business successes were constantly referred to with wonder and praise. He had begun in poverty, peddled oranges on the streets of Philadelphia, and advanced slowly, step by step, to the first place in its business world. ”

“ People liked to talk about everything Girard did. His peculiar walk, old gig, his one eye and his queue, his odd coat and characteristic speech, always enlisted the young countryman's interest and admiration. He thought often of the fact that Stephen Girard had not accomplished large financial results until he was past forty. For ten years, he listened to all that was said of Girard, and during that ten years, until Girard died in 1831, he watched him as a young beginner always watches the older business leaders of their time. ”

“ I never could understand why so many people sacrifice time, talent and money to obtain Copies of Nature, when the originals which ought to be, and are, so much more beautiful, are open and free to all without money and without price. ”

“ Isaiah was in good health, with a probability of years to give to making money for himself.
He had found out that he could not only amass wealth, but also do what many others could not do. He could organize himself to control the saving of it. Not needing it for himself, he had no right to wrap his talent in a napkin but turn it over and over to the utmost for others needing to be helped. ”

“ Isaiah Williamson never for a day of all his long life lost the sweetness, gentleness, and dignity of his little country Quaker mother, nor did he forget the stalwart, rugged manliness, strict honesty, and fairness of his father. ”

“ Helmbold says that he often revealed his deep interest in them by some sudden exclamation like this: "I see so many boys on the street! I think if they had better opportunities they might make good men!" And to a reporter of the Philadelphia Times he said: "It was seeing boys, ragged and barefooted, playing or lounging about the streets, growing up with no education, no trade, no idea of usefulness, that caused me to think of founding a school where every boy could be taught some trade free of expense." ”

“ That is what Williamson thought He had studied the laws of health in general and of his own health in particular; and he used to say what is now being so much emphasized by scientists, physicians and the people's newspapers: "People eat too much!"
As to the reply to the barber about having his hair cut, even if he ever said it, it is quite conceivable that he was having his little joke. All through life ran that vein of gentle, quiet humor, one of the sure signs of a nature full of feeling, and without which it is very doubtful if any man can be truly great, least of all a philanthropist. ”

“ Williamson's heart, and what he fully meant to do;—that being the simple fact, the desire to know how completely his wishes are to be carried out is entirely natural. A short time probably will settle all uncertainty, but in the meanwhile Philadelphians can unite in a feeling commemoration of one of their most generous citizens. Nor will the reputation of his great undertaking be only local. As the name of Girard is national, so will the name of Isaiah V. Williamson be familiar all over the land as one who loved his fellowmen, and who held exceptional wealth only in trust for the general good. ”

“ It is at least open to doubt whether the man who makes two colleges stand where one was enough before has rendered a real service; but a school like this will fill a great want, and is a sign of a wise reaction. The venerable man who lightens up his closing years with an act of such splendid magnificence may take some pleasure in the thought that he has illustrated the existence of the purest motives that can guide the human soul, and has helped to give men a better opinion of mankind. ”

“ In our own time there are men who have won fortunes, and who have withdrawn from active business, and who have made to education and charities the best of all gifts, the gift of their time and talents to college and church work, notably in Philadelphia, Charles Custis Harrison and the late George C. Thomas, and in New York, Morris K. Jesup.
To Isaiah Williamson, who was not constitutionally strong, and who was a bachelor with simple tastes, one hundred thousand dollars, in the thirties, was a mountain of money far in excess of his personal needs. ”

“ It is possible that Williamson came across the saying a member of Parliament once shrewdly uttered, out of personal observation as one of the laboring class, that "charity creates much of the misery it relieves, but does not relieve all the misery it creates." ”

“ The subject of the proper training and education of the young to habits of economy and industry, whereby they shall become self-sustaining, has received my careful attention; and the unwarrantable position taken to some extent by Trades Unions and other Labor organizations in regard to apprenticeships—assuming as they do, arbitrarily, to control and limit the number that shall be admitted to learn a trade—is fraught with great danger to the community, in compelling the young to grow up in habits of idleness, leading at times to vice and crime. ”

“ Williamson said to him:
"Brooding over losses is not the way to make money. It unfits you for future business. You must not look back over the gloomy past." Going to his safe, Williamson brought out a bundle of papers, saying: "That bundle represents hundreds of thousands of dollars which I have lost—much of it through misplaced confidence in friends. The worst of it was, I not only lost the money but in many cases the friendship, and yet I never in my life sued a man for a debt. And so, of late years, I have resolved never to loan a man money without taking security ”

“ But it has a greatness all its own that will abide and enlarge as time goes on, because of a lad born in old Bensalem more than a hundred years ago. Men are living who knew him when he was little and who proudly saw him grow to an honored manhood. They had been unwilling to leave to old scrapbooks of desultory and disconnected newspaper clippings the telling of the story of his life. Therefore, it has been possible to go among them and to jot down what they have said of Isaiah Williamson. ”

“ As a boy and young man he must have made use of the Library frequently. It had been maintained after a fashion ever since, but its scope was very limited and in the early '70's its life seemed flickering. The organization was barely kept alive through the courage and perseverance of three or four individuals. One of the villagers kept the cases of books at his house, and acted as librarian, with a trifling fee. But Williamson put new life into the enterprise by giving $5000 as an endowment fund, of which the interest was to be used in purchasing new books. ”

“ Some of the Trades Union people were at first inclined to criticize the apprenticeship features, as was to be expected. One editorial writer asked indignantly why Isaiah Williamson proposed "to spend all his money upon big, strapping boys, and let the poor delicate girls take care of themselves"; suggested that it was questionable whether Girard College had really been a benefit to those raised and educated in it; and predicted that "Williamson's institution" would become "a great pauper factory instead of a place where boys could be taught to fight the battle of life successfully." ”

“ He never cornered the stock market; he never helped to lock up money, as his vast wealth would have enabled him to do; he never profited by questionable transactions within the companies of which he was a director, by absorption of other companies, freezing out the unasserting and helpless minorities. ”

“ For a long time past I have been counting the months, weeks, and even the days, until the weather will probably be pleasant enough for me to visit "Clover Hill." I long to see Nature in her New Spring Bonnet and Dress. Although she makes no change in Colors and Styles from year to year, with Bustles, Chignons, etc., as do our Fashionable Chestnut St. Belles, still her style is always neat, in good taste, and beautiful. ”

“ Many letters from graduates are on file, telling of their successes and expressing gratitude to the School and its founder, such as the following from a machinist: "I am getting along nicely, making $100 per month, and expect an advance soon. I never can thank the Williamson School enough for its helping hand. I fully realize that it was the moulding and making of my life and character. Such institutions are scarce in our land, and one appreciates the good done by ours." ”

“ The hardships of travel did not deter him—and there were hardships in those early days of a kind we do not dream of. Where the railroads went he followed them to the railheads. But much of his travel had to be in a stage coach or on a river steamer. Everywhere he studied industrial developments. He knew all of his own state, in a thorough way that few people even today, when travel is so easy, know Pennsylvania. ”

“ There are not many ten talent men to be found in one's lifetime, here and there one of two talents and the majority of men possess but one talent or even a half talent, much out of repair from non-use. The story of Isaiah Williamson's life is the word of an honest man, speaking modestly and kindly to us, saying, "Here is what I did with my one talent. ”

“ The visible is not always final. Color blindness to character and worth is much more common than the ordinary defective vision. There is nothing simpler than to judge by appearances and burn a human being at the stake of mistaken judgment.
From Fallsington Four Corners' Village Store to Philadelphia's foremost place as merchant and philanthropist had been a walk of upwards of fourscore years. ”

“ However if you really knew the great pleasure it gives me to receive a Letter from "Clover Hill," I will tell you what I think you would do; you would say to yourself, "Well! there is that old Bachelor uncle of mine whose time is fully occupied with business matters, and who I know fully appreciates my Letters. I don't think I can do anything better than to afford him the pleasure of receiving one every two weeks at least, even if he should (for want of time) neglect to answer them." ”

“ One will find abundant evidence of the founder's wisdom and farsightedness; of the practical value of the apprentice system established in the school, as an offset in some degree to the lapse of the old apprentice system. The eminent success of its graduates and the constant demand for their services in the world of work prove the thoroughness and excellence of the education the schools afford, largely due to the President, John M. Shrigley, who has been in charge of the school from the first. ”

“ But now this Home feeling is returning stronger and stronger every year, and for the present and sometime past nothing gives me more real pleasure than to visit Home, which I now call "Clover Hill."
I have received several letters from you since I last wrote, and I assure you they have given me a great deal of pleasure; the first letter opened when I receive my mail is the one with the "Oxford Valley P.O." stamp, should there fortunately be one such.
Write whenever you have time, and do not wait for me, as my time is so fully occupied that I have very little time for anything but business. ”

“ I have been thinking that during the winter is perhaps the best time to buy a Horse, and if you think "old Black" will not be able to do duty the coming Summer, I wish to propose to you that if you will buy a good, quiet, safe and suitable Horse for such old fellows as you and I to ride behind, at a price not exceeding $200, that I will pay for him. ”

“ Contact with them gave him a certain inspiration, as they were all in the same boat with himself, making their fortunes.
In this thriving, bustling city Isaiah Williamson was matching a country boy's experience against city methods. He found that he had much to learn before he could hope to attain a large success. There were many strong men to compete with among Philadelphia's merchants, and there were many long and well-established houses. ”

“ It was under the home roof that he learned how to be careful in his expenditures, and as a little boy at home as well as a bigger boy apprenticed in a store, that he taught himself how to save. The experience and lessons of these early years were often referred to when he was a prosperous man. He used to say that before spending money it was worth while for any one to think seriously of the lot of things he could do without. ”

“ Nature has given to almost every man a dowry of latent energy that flames up to the surprise of the man himself when he needs it most.
Young Williamson came to Philadelphia, saying to himself, "I must and will conquer circumstances." All his strength rose and asserted itself when his will power became enlisted in his work.
In 1837 the firm of Williamson & Burroughs was dissolved. Isaiah retired, and his youngest brother, Mahlon, became the active Williamson of the firm. ”

“ I expressly direct that each and every scholar shall be compelled to learn and be thoroughly instructed in one good mechanical trade, so that when they leave the School on the completion of their indentures they may be able to support themselves by the labor of their own hands. ”