Today is the 300th anniversary of Father Kino

Father Kino: On the 300th anniversary of your passing away. May your soul rest in peace!


Eusebio Francisco Kino S.J. (August 10, 1645 – March 15, 1711) was an Italian Roman Catholic priest who became famous in what is now northwestern Mexico and the southwestern United States (primarily northern Sonora and southern Arizona) in the region then known as the Pimaria Alta. He is known for his exploration of the region and for his work to Christianize the indigenous Native American population, including primarily the Sobaipuri and other Upper Piman groups. He proved that Baja California is not an island by leading an overland expedition there from Arizona. He established twenty-four missions and visitas ("country chapels" or visiting stations) and was known for his ability to create relationships between indigenous peoples and the religious institutions he represented.

Interaction with the Natives:

In his travels in the Pimería Alta, Father Kino interacted with 16 different tribes. Some of these had land that bordered on the Pimería Alta, but there are many cases where tribal representatives crossed into the Piman lands to meet this man whom so many had heard of. In other cases, Kino traveled into their lands to meet with them. The tribes Father Kino met with are the Cocopa, Eudeve, Hia C-ed O'odham (called Yumans by Kino), Kamia, Kavelchadon, Kiliwa, Maricopa, Mountain Pima, Opata, Quechan, Gila River Pima, Seri, Tohono O'odham, Sobaipuri,Western Apache, Yavapai, and the Yaqui (Yoeme).

Interests:
A widely known fact about Kino now is that he fought hard for the rights of the various indigenous Sonoran tribes and their individual members. His conviction for his fight came from his humanitarian values and were proscribed by the Spanish Crown in the Laws of the Indies (Leyes de Indias). He opposed the slavery and compulsory hard labor in the silver mines that the Spaniards forced on native people.

This also caused great controversy among his co-missionares, many of whom acted according to the laws imposed by Spain on their territory. Father Kino was also a writer, authoring books on religion, astronomy and maps. He built missions extending from present day states of Mexican Sonora - northeast for 150 miles (240 km) - into U.S. Arizona. There the Mission San Xavier del Bac near Tucson, a popular National Historic Landmark, is still functioning as a Franciscan Catholic parish church. He constructed nineteen rancherías (villages), which supplied cattle to new settlements. He was also instrumental in the return of the Jesuits to Baja California in 1697.

In addition to his pastoral activities as a missionary, Eusebio Kino also practiced other crafts and was an expert astronomer, mathematician and cartographer, who drew the first accurate maps of Pimería Alta, the Gulf of California and Baja California. Father Kino enjoyed making model ships out of wood. His knowledge of maps and ships led him to believe that Mexican Indians could easily access California by sea, a view that was taken with skepticism by Mexico City missionaries. When Father Kino proposed and began making a boat that would be pushed across the Sonoran Desert and to the Mexican west coast, a controversy arose, as many of his co-missionares questioned Father Kino's mental abilities.

Death:
Father Eusebio Francisco Kino remained among his missions until his death in 1711. He died from fever on March 15, 1711 in the city now known as Magdalena de Kino, State of Sonora, Mexico, where his skeletal remains can be viewed today.

Legacy:
Father Kino has been honored both in Mexico and the United States, with various towns, streets, schools, monuments, and geographic features named after him. In 1965,a statue of Father Kino was donated to the United States Capitol's National Statuary Hall collection, one of two statues representing Arizona. Another statue of him stands above Kino Parkway, a major thoroughfare in Tucson. Another equestrian statue featuring Kino stands in Wesley Bolin Memorial Plaza across from the Arizona State Capitol in Phoenix. A time capsule is encapsuled in the base.

The towns of Bahía Kino and Magdalena de Kino in Sonora are named in his honor.

Padre Kino is also the name of Mexico's best known table wine.

Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz wrote a sonnet about his astronomical work in observing a comet.

Father Kino is believed to have introduced the Zinfandel grape to the area. In Italy it is known as "primitivo" meaning early as the fruit matures earlier than other grapes. As well he may have introduced the "Mission Fig" from cuttings brought from Europe.

24 Missions and Visitas Founded:

Misión San Bruno: founded 1683 (Kino led the Atondo expedition to the Baja California peninsula of the Las Californias Province of New Spain. In 1685, after a prolonged drought there, Kino and the Jesuit missionaries were forced to abandon the mission.
Mission Nuestra Señora de los Dolores: founded on March 13, 1687. This was the first Pimaria Alta mission founded by Father Kino. By 1744, the mission was abandoned.
Nuestra Señora de los Remedios was founded in 1687 and was abandoned by 1730. Nothing remains of this mission.
San Ignacio de Cabórica was founded in 1687 and is located in San Ignacio, Sonora.
Mission San Pedro y San Pablo del Tubutama was founded in 1687, in Tubutama, Sonora.
Santa Teresa de Atil was founded in 1687, in the small town of Atil, Sonora.
Santa Maria Magdalena was founded in 1687, located in Magdalena de Kino, Sonora. Padre Kino's grave is located here.
San José de Imuris was founded in 1687, in Imuris, Sonora.
Nuestra Señora del Pilar y Santiago de Cocóspera was founded in 1689. It is located in Cocóspera, Sonora.
San Antonio Paduano del Oquitoa was founded in 1689. It is located in Oquitoa, Sonora.
San Diego del Pitiquito was founded in 1689. It is located in Pitiquito, Sonora.
San Luis Bacoancos was founded in 1691, but was soon abandoned after Apache attacks.
Mission San Cayetano del Tumacácori was founded in 1691 at a native Sobaipuri settlement. This was southern Arizona's first mission and Arizona's first Jesuit mission. Later a chapel was built. (San Cayetano de Calabasas was established in a different location much later, after Kino's time.) Sometime after the 1751 Pima Revolt the settlement and mission were moved to the opposite side of the river and became San José de Tumacácori.
Mission San José de Tumacácori, the presently known location that is a National Historic Park. The farming land around the mission was sold at auction in 1834 and the mission was abandoned by 1840. It is now a National Monument in Tumacácori National Historical Park in Southern Arizona.
La Misión de San Gabriel de Guevavi was founded in 1691. It became a cabecera or head mission in 1701 with the establishment of what Kino described affectionately as a "neat little house and church." Through the years its name changed many times so that now it is known by the generic name referencing many saints: Mission Los Santos Ángeles de Guevavi. The chapel was initially established in a native settlement, but then was destroyed by fire, probably during an indigenous uprising. The church rebuilt in new locations twice, the final and largest one being built in 1751. Its ruins are part of Tumacácori National Historical Park.
San Lázaro was founded in 1691, but was soon abandoned after Apache attacks.
San Xavier del Bac (O'odham [Sobaipuri-O'odham]: Wa:k), 16 miles south of Tucson, Arizona, founded as a missionary location in 1692. The present building, located a mile from the original Kino-period location, dates from 1785. The interior is richly decorated with ornaments showing a mixture of New Spain and Native American artistic motifs. It is still used by Tohono O'odham Nation members (Wa:k community members especially) and Yaqui tribal members.
San Cosme y Damián de Tucson: founded 1692
La Purísima Concepción de Nuestra Señora de Caborca: founded 1693
Santa María Suamca: founded 1693
San Valentín de Busanic/Bisanig: founded 1693
Nuestra Señora de Loreto y San Marcelo de Sonoyta: founded 1693
Nuestra Señora de la Ascención de Opodepe: founded 1704
Los Santos Reyes de Sonoita/San Ignacio de Sonoitac: a rancheria near Tumacacori, founded 1692.

In addition, several buildings were established as places to say mass in many more native settlements throughout the region. For example, such structures have been identifed at the Sobaipuri settlements of San Pablo de Quiburi and Santa Cruz de Gaybanipitea on the San Pedro River south of Benson and in many more settlements to the north and along the Gila River. Full-scale churches were never established in these locations but the special buildings and rooms in which to say mass were prominent features in these indigenous settlements.

Movie:
A 1977 movie titled "Father Kino, Padre on Horseback" or "Mission to Glory: A True Story" starring Richard Egan as Padre Kino seeks to portray the struggles of the early padres. The movie, though interesting and well-cast with stars like Ricardo Montalban, Cesar Romero, John Ireland, Kennan Wynn, and others, is often difficult to follow without a basic knowledge of events. The movie is available in DVD format.

Eusebio Francisco Kino



Drawing by Francis O'Brian, 1962

Jesuit Missionary Eusebio Francisco Kino
Padre Kino stood 5'6" tall and was solidly built. He had a broad nose, deep-set eyes and a pronounced brow. He was dark skinned with wavy black hair. He entered the Jesuit college at Trent and went on to the Jesuit college at Hall near Innesbruck, Austria. He joined the Company of Jesus on November 20, 1665 after an illness which nearly claimed his life. He also attended the Universities of Landsberg, Inlolstadt, Innesbruck, Munich and Oehingen. He came to the New World in 1681 and was appointed missionary and royal cosmographer for the California Expedition on October 28, 1682. He arrived in Baja California on April 4, 1683. He was on the second expedition to California on October 6, 1683 at which time he built a mission and established a fort at San Bruno near Loreto. On August 15, 1684 he took his final vows as a Jesuit. He was appointed missionary to the Seri and Guaymas Indians on November 20, 1685. He arrived at Cucurpe in the Pimeria Alta on March 13, 1687 and built his first and home mission just north of there at Nuestra Senora de los Dolores del Cosari. Over the next twenty-four years he established 24 missions and visitas and set up the foundation for modern agriculture and livestock raising. He promoted apprenticeships of artisans and similar trades. He travelled and explored extensively: Tumacácori -1691; Altar River - 1692; Gila River to Casa Grande - 1695; Baja California - 1697; Santa María and San Pedro Rivers - 1698; Gulf of California from the north, Colorado River - 1700; Repeat trip and crosses the Colorado on a raft - 1701; Repeat trip and proof that California is not an island - 1702; Guaymas - 1704; Tiburon Island - 1706; Pinacate and Santa Clara - 1706. He died shortly after midnight on March 15, 1711.
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Kino Chronology
By Dr. Felipe de Jesus Valeñuela
(Translated by Rosarito Velasco Joffroy)

10 Aug. 1645 Born in Segno, Val di Non di Trento, christened with the name of Eusebius, at the Chapel of Torra, in northern Italy.

20 Nov. 1665 Joins the company of Jesus and for the next 13 years, he makes his studies at the University of Landsberg, Freiburg, Ingolstadt and Grammer in Hall.

2 May 1678 Leaves Genoa for Spain with 18 other missionaries and sojourns during three years between Seville and Cádiz.

27 Jan. 1681 Starts his voyage to New Spain that lasts three months.

3 May 1681 Arrives at the Port of Vera Cruz in New Spain.

28 Oct. 1682 He is appointed Missionary and Royal cosmographer to the California Expedition under the command of Admiral Don Isidro Atondo y Antillón. Father Matías Goñi, a missionary, is appointed to join Kino’s expedition.

4 Apr. 1683 Arrives at Bahía de la Paz (Baja California) and names it “La Santisma Trinidad.” However, on July 15, 1683, the expedition abandons La Paz.

6 Oct. 1683 Second expedition to California, arriving in San Bruno (near Loreto). Here, he builds a mission and establishes a Fort. He plants the first vineyard in California. A catechism is written in the “Güimi” language. Father Copart accompanies him on this expedition.

15 Aug. 1684 Father Copart takes Kino’s final vows as a Jesuit.

8 Apr. 1685 San Bruno’s mission is abandoned.

20 Nov. 1685 He is appointed missionary to the Seri and the Guaymas Indian tribes.

13 Mar. 1687 Arrives in Cucurpe and the Pimería Alta, establishing his first mission “Nuestra Señora de los Dolores de Cósari” there. It’s the beginning of his life-time titanic work that lasts 24 years, building 24 missions and “visitas.” The Indians’ living conditions in those days were considerably improved. He sets up the basis for agriculture and cattle-growing. He promotes apprenticeships of artisans and similar trades.

19 Jan. 1689 He and Father González--on the latter’s visit--travel together throughout al the missions that had been built to that date: Dolores, Magdalena, San Ignacio, Imuris and Remedios. The first missionaries arrive. They are: Luis Maria Pinelli, to San Ignacio, Magdalena and El Tupo; Antonio Arias, to Tubutama and San Antonio de Oquitoa; Father Pedro Sandoval, to San Lorenzo del Saric and San Ambrosio de Tucubavia; and Father Juan de Castillejo, to Santiago de Cocóspera and San Lorenzo María Sumaca.

24 Dec. 1690 Father Salvatierra and Father Kino visit the missions and both envision the possibility of obtaining support for the missions in California.

Jan. 1691 They visit the Sobaípuris of Tumacácori, thus arriving for the first time in what is the present state of Arizona.

Aug. 1692 He begins explorations up north and reaches what would later become San Xavier del Bac.

1692 Some more missionaries arrive: Father Augustín de Campos to San Ignacio, Magdalena and El Tupo; Father Januski to Tubutama; and Father Barli to Cocóspera.

11 Dec. 1692 Explores the Altar River, together with Fathers Campos and Leal, all accompanied by Capitán Carrasco. They arrive at “Cerro El Nazareno” over-looking California. Upon his return, he establishes “Nuestra Señora de la Purisima Conceptión” in Caborca.

23 Apr. 1693 He distributes his time between the parishes of Nuestra Señora de los Dolores and San Ignacio in Caborca. He makes trips to Caborca in the company of Lt. Juan Mateo Mange and starts the building of a ship.

Feb. 1694 For the first time he enters the Sobe (Caborca) nation, accompanied by Father Marcos Antonio Kappus from Cucurpe and Lt. Juan Mateo Mange. On his second incursion, he discovers the port of Santa Sabina.

21 Oct. 1694 Father Francisco Javier Saeta arrives in Caborca.

Nov. 1694 Explores the Gila River up the Casa Grande ruins.

2 Apr. 1695 Father Francisco Javier Saeta is sacrificed by the Indians. An uprising over the Pimería Alta takes place and Father Kino reestablishes peace.

16 Nov. 1695 He goes to Mexico on horseback, arriving 7 weeks later[1] to explain about the Pimería uprising. He requests authorization for further expeditions to California.

1697 Father Kino makes several incursions up north with the Sobaípuris. He goes as far as San Xavier del Bac and the Quiburi, exploring the Santa María and San Pedro rivers, as far as their merger with the Gila River. He’s accompanied by Captain Juan Mateo Mange.

25 Feb. 1698 The Apaches attach Cocóspera, San Ignacio and Magdalena, whereupon these missions were totally ravaged. Furthermore, the Coro Chief of the Sobaípuris defeats them in battle.

22 Sept. 1698 Together with Capt. Diego Carrasco, he explores the Gila River; however, he falls sick at San Andres. He later heads toward the south and explores the “Papaguería,” and from the top of the “Cerro del Pinicate,” he sights for the first time the Gulf of California.

7 Feb. 1699 Fathers Kino and Adamo Gil, and Capt. Mange, explore what was known as “Satan’s Route.” As they go across the desert, they discover the mouth of the San Pedro River, leading to the Gila. Mange sees, from a distance, the Gila and the Colorado rivers’ merger.

24 Oct. 1699 Fathers Kino, Leal and Gonzalvo explore the Papaguería.

20 Mar. 1700 In Dolores he receives 20 blue shells, as a gift.

Apr. 1700 Second Lt. Juan Bautista Escalante brings in Tepoaca Indians to the village of Santa María de Magdalena.

28 Apr. 1700 The building of a larger church in San Xavier is initiated.

1 May 1700 At the conference of the “Blue Shells,” the natives affirm that a passage by land to California is possible. Kino heads toward this passage which leads to his discovery of California.

Sep. 1700 Expedition to the north and discovery of the Colorado River, across the desert, through “Satan’s Route,” (Camino del Diablo).

1 Mar. 1701 Along with Salvatierra, he plans a new expedition to the Colorado. From Sonoita they head to the Sea of California and, from the top of a mountain, they see far off the tip of the Gulf of California.

3 Nov. 1701 New incursion into the Colorado, crossing again through “Satan’s Route.”

21 Nov. 1701 Crosses the Colorado on raft en route to California.

5 Feb. 1702 Another expedition to the Colorado—in the company of Father Manuel Gonzalez—is successfully undertaken. Father Kino goes across “Satan’s Route” once more.

11 Mar. 1702 While celebrating Holy Mass, Father Kino watches the sun rising from the end of the sea and realizes that he’s standing on firm land. Father Manuel Gonzalez dies upon his return to Tubutama, Sonora, Mexico.

1703 Father Kino goes on building churches, such as Busaric and Sáric, and initiates construction of a major church at San Xavier del Bac.

17 Jan. 1704 Consecration of the Cocóspera and Remedios missions.

2 Apr. 1704 Father Kino arrives at San José de Guaymas.

21 Jan. 1706 Description and exploration of Santa Inés, on Tiburon Island.

2 Mar. 1706 Undertakes major constructions such as the Magdalena, Tubutama, Sáric, Pitiquito and Caborca churches.

22 Oct. 1706 Father Kino heads new explorations to Pinicate or Santa Clara.

15 Mar. 1711 Upon celebrating the Inaugural Mass at the Chapel of San Francisco (St. Francis Xavier) in Magdalena de Kino, Father Kino falls seriously ill and passes away near midnight on that date.[2]

1919 Herbert E. Bolton translates Father Kino’s memoirs of the Pimería Alta.

1928 Professor Serapio Dávila undertakes investigative work in order to discover Father Kino’s tomb.

1936 Bolton finishes Father Kino’s biography, entitled “Al borde de la Cristianidad” (The Rim of Christendom).

1963 The local Lion’s Club forms a team to discover the site of Father Kino’s tomb. Father Charles W. Polzer also lends a hand.

14 Feb. 1965 Father Kino’s statue is unveiled in Washington’s Capitol Rotunda—where the Nation’s Great lie.

19 May 1966 Finally, his mortal remains are found in the city of Magdalena de Kino, Sonora, by a group of researchers from Mexico and the United States.

21 May 1966 It is, therefore, this group of anthropologists’ conclusions that the remains found of Father Eusebio Francisco Kino are authentic.

2 May 1971 On this date, the monumental square in memory of Father Kino is inaugurated in Magdalena, Sonora, Mexico.

Today is the 110th anniversary of the death of President Benjamin Harrison

Benjamin Harrison: the grandson of President William Henry Harrison, thank you for serving the presidency and being the president during the centennial of the presidency! remembering you after 110 years, may you rest in peace!


Benjamin Harrison (August 20, 1833 – March 13, 1901) was the 23rd President of the United States (1889-1893). Harrison, a grandson of President William Henry Harrison, was born in North Bend, Ohio, and moved to Indianapolis, Indiana at age 21, eventually becoming a prominent politician there. During the American Civil War, he served as a Brigadier General in the XX Corps of the Army of the Cumberland. After the war he unsuccessfully ran for the governorship of Indiana, and was later appointed to the U.S. Senate from that state.

Harrison, a Republican, was elected to the presidency in 1888, defeating Democratic incumbent Grover Cleveland. His administration is most remembered for economic legislation, including the McKinley Tariff and the Sherman Antitrust Act, and for annual federal spending that reached one billion dollars for the first time. Democrats attacked the "Billion Dollar Congress", and used the issue, along with the growing unpopularity of the high tariff, to defeat the Republicans, both in the 1890 mid-term elections and in Harrison's bid for re-election in 1892. He also saw the admittance of six states into the Union.

Defeated by Cleveland in his bid for re-election in 1892, Harrison returned to private life in Indianapolis. He later represented the Republic of Venezuela in an international case against the United Kingdom. In 1900, he traveled to Europe as part of the case and, after a brief stay, returned to Indianapolis, where he died the following year from complications arising from influenza. He is to date the only U.S. president from Indiana and the only one to be the grandson of another president.

United States presidential election, 1888

Harrison, Republican candidate for president poster, 1888[edit] NominationThe initial favorite for the Republican nomination was the previous nominee, James G. Blaine of Maine. After Blaine wrote several letters denying any interest in the nomination, his supporters divided among other candidates, with John Sherman of Ohio as the leader among them.

Others, including Chauncey Depew of New York, Russell Alger of Michigan, and Harrison's old nemesis Walter Q. Gresham, now a federal appellate court judge in Chicago, also sought the delegates' support at the 1888 Republican National Convention. Blaine did not choose any of the candidates as a successor, so none entered the convention with a majority of the Blaine supporters.


Harrison-Morton campaign posterHarrison placed fourth on the first ballot, with Sherman in the lead, and the next few ballots showed little change. The Blaine supporters shifted their support around among the candidates they found acceptable, and when they shifted to Harrison, they found a candidate who could attract the votes of many delegates. He was nominated on the eighth ballot by 544 to 108 votes, winning the Republican presidential nomination. Levi P. Morton of New York was chosen as his running mate.

Election over Cleveland Harrison's opponent in the general election was incumbent President Grover Cleveland. He ran a front-porch campaign, typical of the era, in which the candidate does not campaign but only receives delegations and makes pronouncements from his home town. The Republicans campaigned heavily on the issue of protective tariffs, turning out protectionist voters in the important industrial states of the North.

The election focused on the swing states of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Harrison's home state of Indiana.[55] Harrison and Cleveland split these four states, with Harrison winning by means of notoriously fraudulent balloting in New York and Indiana. Voter turnout was 79.3% because of a large interest in the campaign issue, and nearly eleven million votes were cast. Although Harrison received 90,000 fewer popular votes than Cleveland, he carried the Electoral College 233 to 168.


Results of the 1888 election, with states won by Harrison in red, and those won by Cleveland in blue.Although he had made no political bargains, his supporters had given many pledges upon his behalf.

When Boss Matthew Quay of Pennsylvania, who rebuffed for a Cabinet position for his political support during the convention, heard that Harrison ascribed his narrow victory to Providence, Quay exclaimed that Harrison would never know "how close a number of men were compelled to approach...the penitentiary to make him President." Harrison was known as the Centennial President because his inauguration celebrated the centenary of the first inauguration of George Washington in 1789.

Presidency 1889–1893

Inauguration:Harrison was sworn into office on Monday, March 4, 1889 by Chief Justice Melville Fuller. Harrison's Inauguration ceremony took place during a rainstorm in Washington D.C.. Cleveland attended the ceremony and held an umbrella over Harrison's head as he took the oath of office. His speech was brief and half as long as that of his grandfather, William Henry Harrison, who held the record with the longest Inaugural Address.

In his inaugural address Harrison credited the nation's growth to the influences of education and religion, urged the cotton states and mining territories to attain the industrial proportions of the eastern states and promised a protective tariff. During his speech Harrison also urged early statehood for the territories and advocated pensions for veterans, a statement that was met with enthusiastic applause. In foreign affairs, Harrison pledged vigilance of national honor and reaffirmed the Monroe Doctrine as a mainstay of foreign policy, while also urging the building of a modern navy and a merchant marine force. He reaffirmed his commitment to international peace through noninterference in the affairs of foreign governments. John Philip Sousa's Marine Corps band played at the Inaugural Ball inside the Pension Building with a large crowd attending.


States admitted to the Union:
When Harrison took office, no new states had been admitted in more than a decade, owing to Congressional Democrats' reluctance to admit states that they believed would send Republican members. Early in Harrison's term, however, the lame duck Congress passed bills that admitted four states to the union: North Dakota and South Dakota on November 2, 1889, Montana on November 8, and Washington on November 11. The following year two more states held constitutional conventions and were admitted: Idaho on July 3 and Wyoming on July 10, 1890. The initial Congressional delegations from all six states were solidly Republican. More states were admitted under Harrison's presidency than any other since George Washington's.


Post-presidency
After he left office, Harrison visited the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in June 1893,where the nation's first commemorative postage was introduced, an initiative of his Postmaster General, John Wanamaker. After the Expo, Harrison returned to his home in Indianapolis. From July 1895 to March 1901,

Harrison was on the Board of Trustees of Purdue University. Harrison Hall, a campus dormitory, was named in his honor. In 1896 he remarried, to Mary Scott Lord Dimmick, the niece of his deceased wife, and 25 years his junior. Harrison's two adult children, Russell, 41 years old at the time, and Mary (Mamie), 38, did not attend the wedding because they disagreed with their father's marriage. Benjamin and Mary had one child, Elizabeth (February 21, 1897 – December 26, 1955).

In 1899 Harrison went to the First Peace Conference at The Hague. He wrote a series of articles about the Federal government and the presidency, which were republished in 1897 as a book titled This Country of Ours.

For a few months in 1894, he moved to San Francisco, California, and taught and gave law lectures at Stanford University. In 1896 some of Harrison's friends in the Republican party tried to convince him to seek the presidency again, but he declined and openly supported William McKinley and traveled around the nation making appearances and speeches on McKinley's behalf.

In 1900 Harrison served as an attorney for the Republic of Venezuela in their boundary dispute with the United Kingdom.

The two nations disputed the border between Venezuela and British Guiana. An international trial was agreed upon and the Venezuelan government hired Harrison to represent them in the case. He filed an 800-page brief for them and traveled to Paris where he spent more than 25 hours arguing in court. Although he lost the case, his legal arguments won him international renown.

Harrison developed a heavy cold in February 1901. Despite treatment by steam vapor inhalation, his condition only worsened, and he died from influenza and pneumonia at his home on Wednesday, March 13, 1901, at the age of 67. Harrison is interred in Indianapolis's Crown Hill Cemetery, along with both of his wives.

Legacy

As his successor grew less popular during the Panic of 1893, however, Harrison's popularity grew in retirement.[118] His legacy among historians is scant, and "general accounts of his period inaccurately treat Harrison as a cipher". More recently, "historians have recognized the importance of the Harrison administration—and Harrison himself—in the new foreign policy of the late nineteenth century.

The administration faced challenges throughout the hemisphere, in the Pacific, and in relations with the European powers, involvements that would be taken for granted in the twentieth century." Harrison's presidency belongs properly to the nineteenth century, but he "clearly pointed the way" to the modern presidency that would emerge under William McKinley.

After his death, Harrison was memorialized on several postage stamps. The first was a 13-cent stamp issued on November 18, 1902, shortly after his death, and was based on a photo provided by Harrison's widow.

In all Harrison has been honored on six U.S. Postage stamps, more than most other U.S. Presidents. Harrison also appeared on the five-dollar National Bank Notes from the third charter period, beginning in 1902. A dollar coin with his image, part of the Presidential $1 Coin Program, is due to be issued in 2012.

A Liberty Ship launched in 1942, the SS Benjamin Harrison, was also named in his honor. The ship was scuttled a year later after being damaged in a U-boat attack. In 1951, Harrison's home was opened to the public as a library and museum after initially having been used as a dormitory for a music school after 1937. It was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1964.

One year ago today, my best friend got married!

To my best friend Michael and his beautiful bride, Jenna, Happy one year anniversary and congrats on being a lovely couple and having a bundle of joy to take over!


May you enjoy more beautiful moments and continue to bask in the celebration of your marriage on all days.

Remembering a slain Roman Catholic priest after 9 years

Father Lawrence, its truly a shame today is the 9 year anniversary of your passing, I do hope you find peace in heaven! may you rest in peace!

Fr. Lawrence Penzes was appointed pastor. Fr. “Larry”, like so many of the pastors before him, brought a new energy to the parish. During his brief eight years as pastor, he was able to reduce the parish debt while many new renovations took place in the church. He commissioned a statue of Our Lady of Peace that graces the right side of the altar designed by his brother and donated by a long-standing member of the parish. In 1997, Fr. Larry was instrumental in securing the stained glass windows that so beautifully adorn the church from the Chapel of St. Joseph’s Villa in Rockville Centre – a gift from the Sisters of the Congregation of the Infant Jesus. New lighting was installed and pews were removed to make way for a Baptismal font that would allow baptism by immersion. A “Saints’ Chapel was built off the main entrance to the church giving parishioners a place to pray and reflect with the saints whose statues adorned the church Pre-Vatican II.

On March 12, 2002, the most unheard of tragedy overtook our loving parish. A man with a rifle hidden under his coat entered the church during the 9:00 AM daily Mass shot and killed Fr. Larry and long-time parishioner, Eileen Tosner. The outpouring of grief was beyond belief! As the community was coming to grips with this senseless act, Bishop William Murphy sent Fr. William Singleton, a retired priest from St. Raymond’s in East Rockaway to help us begin the healing process. In late summer Fr. James Pereda, from the Diocesan Tribunal served as temporary administrator until Bishop William Murphy would select our new pastor.

Priest Dies in N.Y. Church Shooting
The NationCrime: An elderly parishioner is also killed. A suspect is arrested after a seven-hour standoff.
March 13, 2002JOHN J. GOLDMAN TIMES STAFF WRITERLYNBROOK, N.Y. — A man with a rifle opened fire Tuesday in a church in this suburban community, slaying a priest during Mass as he stood on the altar and killing an elderly parishioner as she worshiped in a pew.

The suspected gunman fled into a house near Our Lady of Peace Church. After a seven-hour standoff, a police SWAT team forced its way into the building and subdued the man, who officers said lunged at them with a knife.


Father Lawrence Penzes, 50, was shot in the back just as he finished his sermon and had turned to sit down. The bullet that killed Eileen Tosner, 73, hit her in the face.

About 40 people were attending the morning Mass when the attack began. Worshipers who dived to the floor recalled hearing shots and a baby cry. Some thought they were hearing firecrackers until they realized that bullets were being fired.

"I just threw myself on the floor. I saw Father Larry go down," said Jean Maier, who was in a front row. " . . . When I finally got up, the lady behind me was dead."

Clergyman Probably Died on the Altar

Physicians said the clergyman was killed when the bullet that entered his back pierced his heart.

"It is very likely he died on the altar," said Dr. Dana Monaco, an attending physician at nearby Mercy Medical Center, where the priest was pronounced dead.

Shock waves quickly swept through the normally quiet community on Long Island's south shore. Parishioners in tears gathered outside the red brick and gray concrete church, which was cordoned off by yellow police tape.

Anxious parents rushed to the church's school next door. As a precaution, the school's doors were locked to keep students inside while police sought to capture the gunman.

The suspect, Peter Troy, 34, of Lynbrook, was charged Tuesday night with two counts of second-degree murder and attempted murder, said Nassau County police spokeswoman Joan Eames.

Neighbors said the man had moved into the area several months ago and had acted strangely.

Detectives are investigating whether the suspected gunman could be linked to an incident Monday night in the parking lot of the town hall directly across from the church. Several windows of the car belonging to Lynbrook's police chief were shattered by gunshots.

After the slayings, detectives said, an off-duty police lieutenant and a parishioner chased the suspected assailant, who fled the church. They managed to wrestle the rifle away from him, but he eluded their grasp. Police quickly traced the man to a nearby house with several apartments, where he was later apprehended.

"The sorrow we all share at this senseless act is beyond human measure," said Bishop William Murphy of the Rockville Center diocese.

"Our hearts are one with all the parishioners of Our Lady of Peace Church who have lost their good and faithful pastor as well as a devoted parishioner and neighbor," Murphy said.

Church officials said Penzes, who was born in Brooklyn, was ordained in 1972 and had been pastor at Our Lady of Peace since 1994. The church has about 7,500 worshipers.

Penzes was a lieutenant colonel in the Air Force chaplains' corps and was an activist priest who brought many improvements to the church, including strengthening its finances.

'He Always Left You With a Phrase'

Parishioners described Penzes as a quiet but dynamic priest who concentrated on the physical and the spiritual needs of his parish.

"It needed new windows, it got new roofing. He made the church look like it would last another 50 years until the next generation," said John Lucas, 70. "He was very good on homilies, very story-like. He would hold your mind to his thoughts.

"In the end, you walked away with something," Lucas said. "He always left you with a phrase in the end."

Another parishioner, Russell Ruvolo, 80, described Penzes as "a very, very good priest, quiet on the outside."

"He was a very respectable man," said Ruvolo, who stood in front of the church watching police enter. "Nobody could hate him, but somebody did."

Edward Hughes, the custodian of the church's school, said Penzes would drop into the school to talk with children and was "loved by his parishioners."

Msgr. James P. Kelly of St. Agnes Cathedral in Rockville Center said Penzes had served in two other Long Island churches before coming to Lynbrook and had a major influence on the parish.

Kathy Guerrero, who stood down the block from the church, which she attended regularly, agreed.

"He was a gentleman. He was one of the best priests I ever met," she said. "He was a beautiful person. Everyone just loved him."


Funeral for Slain Priest Draws an Overflow Crowd
By ELISSA GOOTMAN
ROCKVILLE CENTRE, N.Y., March 15— They gathered, gasping, in front of their small church on Tuesday as word spread that their priest and a parishioner had been killed, and they gathered the next two days to pray and offer condolences as the body of the Rev. Lawrence M. Penzes lay in state.

This morning, the parishioners of Our Lady of Peace Roman Catholic Church in Lynbrook met again, this time at St. Agnes Cathedral, a larger church here that was still too small to hold the more than 1,000 people who showed up for Father Penzes' funeral.

Parishioners filled the pews and spilled into the vestibule, the stairwell and the choir loft. Near the altar sat about 200 priests in white linen vestments, some of whom had played football or table tennis with Father Larry, as he was known, and others who were familiar only with the grim facts: that a gunman had burst in on 9 a.m. Mass on Tuesday, killing the 50-year-old priest and Eileen Tosner, a 73-year-old parishioner.

''No one will ever forget that Father Larry's passing was during the celebration of Mass,'' the Rev. Charles Keeney, a college friend of Father Penzes', noted in his homily. ''In one sense, for a priest it was a terrible way to go, and in another sense, what a beautiful time for a priest to go.''

Parents hugged their children and sobbed as Air Force reservists who knew Father Penzes through his role as an Air Force chaplain carried the coffin, draped with an American flag, past a row of volunteers from the Lynbrook Fire Department, which Father Penzes had also served as chaplain.

The priest's father and other relatives carried the communion offerings to the altar, where Bishop William F. Murphy of the Rockville Centre Diocese presided. At the end of the service, the bishop burned incense around the coffin, and the priests filed into the fog outside.

Even then, Father Penzes' friends and flock struggled to come to grips with his death.

''I still can't believe he's gone,'' said Maj. Trish Welch, a lawyer with the Air Force reserves who recalled shopping for Persian rugs with Father Penzes in Dubai, while the two were on an assignment in the United Arab Emirates. ''He'd get them for the parish.''

Parishioners looked back on a terrible week with hopes that by Easter, the healing would begin.

The funeral for other victim, Mrs. Tosner, is set for Saturday. And the village still faces the prosecution of Peter J. Troy, 34, a Lynbrook resident who has been charged in the killings.

''It's going to be a difficult time,'' said Lori Vardaro, 38, a parishioner whose eyes misted as a bagpiper played ''Amazing Grace'' and the coffin was slipped into a silver hearse. ''But I think this is going to pull the community together.''

For many who attended, Father Penzes' funeral was a time to reflect not so much on the details of the shooting as on the simple goodness of a religious man who died in worship. As the country focuses on allegations that priests have molested children, they said, Father Penzes' life represents the church's best face.

''People who are losing confidence in the church,'' said Michael Callahan, 48, a human resources director who attended seminary with Father Penzes, ''need to know that there are people like Larry.''

Today is the 170th birthday of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr

Sir, You had some resume on your life in the History books thanks for being part of it especially being part of the Supreme Court and being the oldest man who was a Chief Justice, thanks, happy 170th birthday!

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (March 8, 1841 – March 6, 1935) was an American jurist who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1902 to 1932. Noted for his long service, his concise and pithy opinions, and his deference to the decisions of elected legislatures, he is one of the most widely cited United States Supreme Court justices in history, particularly for his "clear and present danger" majority opinion in the 1919 case of Schenck v. United States, and is one of the most influential American common law judges.

Holmes retired from the Court at the age of 90, making him the oldest Justice in the Supreme Court's history. He also served as an Associate Justice and as Chief Justice on the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, and was Weld Professor of Law at the Harvard Law School, of which he was an alumnus.

Profoundly influenced by his experience fighting in the American Civil War, Holmes helped move American legal thinking away from formalism and towards legal realism, as summed up in his maxim: "The life of the law has not been logic; it has been experience." Holmes espoused a form of moral skepticism and opposed the doctrine of natural law, marking a significant shift in American jurisprudence. As he wrote in one of his most famous decisions, his dissent in Abrams v. United States (1919), he regarded the United States Constitution as "an experiment, as all life is an experiment" and believed that as a consequence "we should be eternally vigilant against attempts to check the expression of opinions that we loathe and believe to be fraught with death."

During his tenure on the Supreme Court, to which he was appointed by President Theodore Roosevelt, he supported efforts for economic regulation and advocated broad freedom of speech under the First Amendment. These positions as well as his distinctive personality and writing style made him a popular figure, especially with American progressives, despite his deep cynicism and disagreement with their politics.

His jurisprudence influenced much subsequent American legal thinking, including judicial consensus supporting New Deal regulatory law, pragmatism, critical legal studies, and law and economics. The Journal of Legal Studies has identified Holmes as one of the three most cited American legal scholars of the 20th century.

Supreme Court:

On August 11, 1902, Holmes received a recess appointment from President Theodore Roosevelt naming Holmes to a seat on the United States Supreme Court vacated by Justice Horace Gray, who had retired in July 1902 as a result of illness. The appointment was made on the recommendation of Senator Henry Cabot Lodge (Roosevelt reportedly admired Holmes's "Soldier's Faith" speech as well). Holmes' appointment has been referred to as one of the few Supreme Court appointments in history not motivated by partisanship or politics, but strictly based on the nominee's contribution to law.

Formally nominated on December 2, 1902, Holmes was unanimously confirmed by the United States Senate on December 4, receiving his commission the same day. According to some accounts, Holmes assured Roosevelt that he would vote to sustain the administration's position that not all the provisions of the United States Constitution applied to possessions acquired from Spain, an important question on which the Court was then evenly divided. On the bench, Holmes did vote to support the administration's position in the "Insular Cases." However, he later disappointed Roosevelt by dissenting in Northern Securities Co. v. United States, a major antitrust prosecution.


In the year of his appointment to the United States Supreme Court.Holmes was known for his pithy, short, and frequently quoted opinions. In more than thirty years on the Supreme Court bench, he ruled on cases spanning the whole range of federal law. He is remembered for prescient opinions on topics as widely separated as copyright, the law of contempt, the antitrust status of professional baseball, and the oath required for citizenship. Holmes, like most of his contemporaries, viewed the Bill of Rights as codifying privileges obtained over the centuries in English and American law. Beginning with his first opinion for the Court, in Otis v. Parker, Holmes declared that "due process of law," the fundamental principle of fairness, protected people from unreasonable legislation, but was limited to only those fundamental principles enshrined in the common law and did not protect most economic interests.

In a series of opinions during and after the First World War, he held that the freedom of expression guaranteed by federal and state constitutions simply declared a common-law privilege to do harm, except in cases where the expression, in the circumstances in which it was uttered, posed a "clear and present danger" of causing some harm that the legislature had properly forbidden. In Schenck v. United States, Holmes announced this doctrine for a unanimous Court, famously declaring that the First Amendment would not protect a person "falsely shouting fire in a theatre and causing a panic."

The following year, in Abrams v. United States, Holmes — influenced by Zechariah Chafee's article "Freedom of Speech in War Time"— delivered a strongly worded dissent in which he criticized the majority's use of the clear and present danger test, arguing that protests by political dissidents posed no actual risk of interfering with war effort. In his dissent, he accused the Court of punishing the defendants for their opinions rather than their acts.

Although Holmes evidently believed that he was adhering to his own precedent, many later commentators accused Holmes of inconsistency, even of seeking to curry favor with his young admirers. The Supreme Court departed from his views where the validity of a statute was in question, adopting the principle that a legislature could properly declare that some forms of speech posed a clear and present danger, regardless of the circumstances in which they were uttered.

From Taft's departure on February 3, 1930 until Hughes took office on February 24, 1930, Holmes was briefly Acting Chief Justice under 36 Stat. 1152.

By the time Holmes was 80, he had dissented in so many opinions that he became known as "The Great Dissenter," a title which has been carried through the years to refer to various U.S. Supreme Court justices, including Justice John Marshall Harlan,with the latest being Justice William Brennan.

Retirement, death, honors and legacy:
Holmes served on the court until January 12, 1932, when his brethren on the court, citing his advanced age, suggested that the time had come for him to step down. By that time, at 90 years of age, he was the oldest justice to serve in the court's history.

Three years later, Holmes died of pneumonia in Washington, D.C. in 1935, two days short of his 94th birthday. In his will, Holmes left his residuary estate to the United States government (he had earlier said that "Taxes are what we pay for civilized society" in Compania General De Tobaccos De Filipinas vs. Collector of Internal Revenue, 275 U.S. 87, 100 (1927).

After his death, his personal effects included his Civil War Officer's uniform still stained with his blood and 'torn with shot' as well as the carefully wrapped Minié balls that had wounded him three times in separate battles. He was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. The United States Postal Service honored Holmes with a Prominent Americans series (1965–1978) 15¢ postage stamp.

Holmes's papers, donated to Harvard Law School, were kept closed for many years after his death, a circumstance that gave rise to numerous speculative and fictionalized accounts of his life. Catherine Drinker Bowen's fictionalized biography "Yankee from Olympus" was a long-time bestseller, and the 1951 Hollywood motion picture The Magnificent Yankee was based on a highly fictionalized play about Holmes's life. Since the opening of the extensive Holmes papers in the 1980s, however, there has been a series of more accurate biographies and scholarly monographs.

Harvard Medical School names one of its five student societies after his father, Doctor Oliver Wendell Holmes.

80 Years ago today, The United States officially adopts The Star-Spangled Banner as its national anthem!

The 100th anniversary of the day on which Francis Scott Key wrote those memorable words!





On this day in 1931, President Herbert Clark Hoover announced that The United States officially adopts The Star-Spangled Banner as its national anthem. The Star-Spangled Banner" is the national anthem of the United States of America. It was poem written in 1814 by amateur poet, Francis Scott Key, after witnessing the bombardment of Fort McHenry by the British Royal Navy ships in the War of 1812. Happy 80 years!




"The Star-Spangled Banner" is the national anthem of the United States of America. The lyrics come from "Defence of Fort McHenry", a poem written in 1814 by the 35-year-old lawyer and amateur poet, Francis Scott Key, after witnessing the bombardment of Fort McHenry by the British Royal Navy ships in Chesapeake Bay during the Battle of Fort McHenry in the War of 1812.

The poem was set to the tune of a popular British drinking song, written by John Stafford Smith for the Anacreontic Society, a men's social club in London. "The Anacreontic Song" (or "To Anacreon in Heaven"), with various lyrics, was already popular in the United States. Set to Key's poem and renamed "The Star-Spangled Banner", it would soon become a well-known American patriotic song.

With a range of one and a half octaves, it is known for being difficult to sing. Although the song has four stanzas, only the first is commonly sung today, with the fourth ("O! thus be it ever when free men shall stand...") added on more formal occasions. The fourth stanza includes the line "And this be our motto: In God is our Trust.". The United States adopted "In God We Trust" as its national motto in 1956.

"The Star-Spangled Banner" was recognized for official use by the Navy in 1889 and the President in 1916, and was made the national anthem by a congressional resolution on March 3, 1931 (46 Stat. 1508, codified at 36 U.S.C. § 301), which was signed by President Herbert Hoover.

Before 1931, other songs served as the hymns of American officialdom. "Hail, Columbia" served this purpose at official functions for most of the 19th century. "My Country, 'Tis of Thee", whose melody was derived from the British national anthem, also served as a de facto anthem before the adoption of "The Star-Spangled Banner." Following the War of 1812 and subsequent American wars, other songs would emerge to compete for popularity at public events, among them "The Star-Spangled Banner.

National anthem
How Current is This? (a) Designation.— The composition consisting of the words and music known as the Star-Spangled Banner is the national anthem.
(b) Conduct During Playing.— During a rendition of the national anthem—
(1) when the flag is displayed—
(A) individuals in uniform should give the military salute at the first note of the anthem and maintain that position until the last note;
(B) members of the Armed Forces and veterans who are present but not in uniform may render the military salute in the manner provided for individuals in uniform; and
(C) all other persons present should face the flag and stand at attention with their right hand over the heart, and men not in uniform, if applicable, should remove their headdress with their right hand and hold it at the left shoulder, the hand being over the heart; and
(2) when the flag is not displayed, all present should face toward the music and act in the same manner they would if the flag were displayed. Ask A Lawyer Online.
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The song gained popularity throughout the nineteenth century and bands played it during public events, such as July 4 celebrations. On July 27, 1889, Secretary of the Navy Benjamin F. Tracy signed General Order #374, making "The Star-Spangled Banner" the official tune to be played at the raising of the flag.

In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson ordered that "The Star-Spangled Banner" be played at military and other appropriate occasions. Although the playing of the song two years later during the seventh-inning stretch of the 1918 World Series is often noted as the first instance that the anthem was played at a baseball game, evidence shows that the "Star-Spangled Banner" was performed as early as 1897 at opening day ceremonies in Philadelphia and then more regularly at the Polo Grounds in New York City beginning in 1898. However, the tradition of performing the national anthem before every baseball game began in World War II.

Today, the anthem is performed before the beginning of all MLS, NBA, NFL, MLB and NHL games (with at least one American team playing), as well as in a pre-race ceremony portion of every NASCAR race. In Baltimore, where the anthem was written, fans at the Baltimore Orioles, Baltimore Ravens, and Maryland Terrapins game often yell "O!" when the anthem reaches the line, "Oh, say does that Star Spangled...". This began because one of the common nicknames for the Orioles is the "O's".

On November 3, 1929, Robert Ripley drew a panel in his syndicated cartoon, Ripley's Believe it or Not!, saying "Believe It or Not, America has no national anthem". In 1931, John Philip Sousa published his opinion in favor, stating that "it is the spirit of the music that inspires" as much as it is Key’s "soul-stirring" words. By a law signed on March 3, 1931 by President Herbert Hoover, "The Star-Spangled Banner" was adopted as the official national anthem of the United States.


Lyrics
Cover of sheet music for "The Star-Spangled Banner", transcribed for piano by Ch. Voss, Philadelphia: G. Andre & Co., 1862O! say can you see by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there;
O! say does that star-spangled banner yet wave,
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner, O! long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

O! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation.
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave

70 years ago today, Gutzon Borglum died in 1941

You were a man of great vision, You will be remembered as the creator some of the most beautiful monuments that have become symbols of our country. Thank you sir for the legacy of beauty you left us. I hope to see Mount Rushmore some day, remembering you after 70 years, may you rest in peace!





(John) Gutzon de la Mothe Borglum (March 25, 1867 – March 6, 1941) was an American artist and sculptor famous for creating the monumental presidents' heads at Mount Rushmore, South Dakota, the famous carving on Stone Mountain near Atlanta, as well as other public works of art.

A fascination with gigantic scale and themes of heroic nationalism suited his extroverted personality. His head of Abraham Lincoln, carved from a six-ton block of marble, was exhibited in Theodore Roosevelt's White House and can be found in the Capitol Rotunda in Washington, D.C. A patriot, believing that the "monuments we have built are not our own," he looked to create art that was "American, drawn from American sources, memorializing American achievement" according to a 1908 interview article. His equation of being "American" with being born of American parents—"flesh of our flesh"—was characteristic of nativist beliefs in the early 20th century. Borglum was highly suited to the competitive environment surrounding the contracts for public buildings and monuments, and his public sculpture is sited all around the United States.


In 1908, Borglum won a competition for a statue of the Civil War General Philip Sheridan to be placed in Sheridan Circle in Washington. D.C.

A second version was erected in Chicago, Illinois in 1923. Winning this competition was a personal triumph for him because he won out over sculptor J.Q.A.Ward, a much older and more established artist, and one whom Borglum had clashed with earlier in regard to the National Sculpture Society. At the unveiling of the Sheridan one critic, President Theodore Roosevelt (whom Borglum was later to put on Mount Rushmore) declared that it was "first rate," and another critic was to state that, "as a sculptor Gutzon Borglum was no longer a rumor, he was a fact."

Borglum was active in the committee that organized the New York Armory Show of 1913, the birthplace of modernism in American art. But by the time the show was ready to open, Borglum resigned from the committee, feeling that the emphasis on avant-garde works had co-opted the original premise of the show and made traditional artists like himself look provincial. He lived in Stamford, Connecticut for 10 years.

Borglum is buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale in California in the Memorial Court of Honor. His second wife, Mary Montgomery Williams Borglum, 1874–1955 (they were married May 20, 1909) is interred alongside him. In addition to his son, Lincoln, he had a daughter, Mary Ellis (Mel) Borglum Vhay (1916–2002).


Mount Rushmore

Mount Rushmore project, 1927–1941, was the brainchild of South Dakota state historian Doane Robinson. His first attempt with one of the faces was blown up after two years. Dynamite was also used to remove large areas of rock from under Washington's brow. The initial pair of presidents, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, was soon joined by Thomas Jefferson and Theodore Roosevelt.

Borglum alternated exhausting on-site supervising with world tours, raising money, polishing his personal legend, sculpting a Thomas Paine memorial for Paris and a Woodrow Wilson one for Poland. In his absence, work at Mount Rushmore was overseen by his son Lincoln. During the Rushmore project, father and son were residents of Beeville, Texas. When he died in Chicago, following complications after surgery, his son finished another season at Rushmore, but left the monument largely in the state of completion it had reached under his father's direction.


Other works
Statue of John William Mackay in front of Mackay School of Earth Sciences and Engineering from June 1908.

Aviator, sculpted by Borglum in 1919, is located on the grounds of the University of Virginia

Monument depicting North Carolinian soldiers who fought during the Battle of GettysburgIn 1908, Borglum completed the statue of John William Mackay (1831–1902), a Comstock Lode silver baron. The statue is located at the University of Nevada, Reno.

In 1909, Rabboni was created as a grave site for the Ffoulke Family in Washington, D.C. at Rock Creek Cemetery.

In 1912, the Nathaniel Wheeler Memorial Fountain was dedicated in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

One of Borglum's more unusual pieces is the "Aviator", completed in 1919 as a memorial for James R. McConnell, who was killed in World War I while flying for the Lafayette Escadrille. It is located on the grounds of the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Another impressive Borglum design is the North Carolina Monument on Seminary Ridge at the Gettysburg Battlefield in south-central Pennsylvania. The cast bronze sculpture depicts a wounded Confederate officer encouraging his men to push forward during Pickett's Charge.

With dramatic flair, Borglum had made arrangements for an airplane to fly over the monument during the dedication ceremony on July 3, 1929. During the sculpture's unveiling, the plane scattered roses across the field as a salute to those North Carolinians who had fought and died at Gettysburg.

Four public works by Borglum are in Newark, NJ: Seated Lincoln (1911), Indian and Puritan (1916) , Wars of America (1926) , and a bas-relief, "First Landing Party of the Founders of Newark" (1916).

Borglum was an active member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons (the Freemasons), raised in Howard Lodge #35, New York City, on June 10, 1904, and serving as its Worshipful Master 1910-11. In 1915, he was appointed Grand Representative of the Grand Lodge of Denmark near the Grand Lodge of New York.

He received his Scottish Rite Degrees in the New York City Consistory on October 25, 1907. Borglum was a member of the Ku Klux Klan. He sat on the Imperial Koncilium in 1923, which transferred leadership of The Ku Klux Klan from Imperial Wizard Colonel Simmons to Imperial Wizard Hiram Evans.

Later, he stated, "I am not a member of the Kloncilium, nor a knight of the KKK", but Shaff and Shaff add, "that was for public consumption." The museum at Mount Rushmore displays a letter to Borglum from D. C. Stephenson, the infamous Klan Grand Dragon who was later convicted of the rape and murder of Madge Oberholtzer.


In 1938 Borglum also sculpted the Memorial to the "Start Westward of the United States" which is located in Marietta, Ohio. He also built the statue of Daniel Butterfield in Sakura Park, Manhattan.

He also created a memorial to Sacco and Vanzetti (1928), a plaster cast of which is now in the Boston Public Library.