November 30, 2020 Thank you, Barbara Schock, for sharing your extraordinary gift of these vignettes of Galesburg & 19th century American history.
Mo neyBy Barbara Schock
From the time he arrived in Galesburg from Sweden August
Sandburg was very careful about money. He invested in a three-room cottage on
Third Street before his marriage. A number of years later he purchased a larger
residence in order to shelter his family and to rent several of the rooms to
others. The rent money was used to pay the mortgage. August frequently consulted with his cousin, Magnus Holmes,
about things like applying for his citizen ship papers and making investments.
Magnus had arrived in Galesburg the same year as the railroad—in 1854. August
had come to the United States fifteen years later. Magnus Holmes had moved a small wooden office building from
South Street to a lot he owned near to his own home. He remodeled it and rented
the house for additional income. August followed the same pattern by buying a
larger house. Holmes had purchased a quarter section of land in Nebraska. Later,
his son went there to farm the land. His daughter also moved to Nebraska after
she received her teaching certificate. She taught in the local school and kept
house for her brother. August bought land in Kansas, but never moved his family
there. During the Panic of 1893, the parcel had to be sold at a loss. It surely
much have been a sad day for him. The last three decades of the nineteenth century are often
called the “Age of the Robber Barons.” Those men were the titans of railroad
expansion, development of manufacturing and the creation of retailing empires.
These men paid their workers a minimal amount in order to make money for
themselves. There were no welfare programs to care for the injured workers or
the families who suffered the loss of the breadwinner. The Robber Barons wanted to make as much money as possible.
Upon retiring these men began to give away their money. Andrew Carnegie gave
money for the building of public libraries across the country. His foundation
still serves as a source of support for world peace and other programs. John D.
Rockefeller also established a foundation for doing good works that still exists
today. The wealthy men of New York City established the Metropolitan Museum to
hold one of the world’s best collections of art. These are just a few examples,
but there were many more men who followed the same pattern. These men seemed to think making great sums of money for
themselves was a great virtue and giving it away was an even greater virtue.
They didn’t consider the heavy cost to the working immigrants and their families
who had come to America for a better life. After August Sandburg was not longer
able to wield a sledge hammer at the railroad blacksmith shop, he became a
handyman. He used skills he had learned in taking care of his own property. He
made more money than at the railroad.
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