Newtown Historical Society

To Host Carnegie Program On May 11

They were called robber barons, those men of the 19th and early 20th Century American industry, men of greed unfettered by conscience. Yet the charitable legacies they left are immense.

Newtown Historical Society will examine this paradox in the form of a re-enactment of the life of Andrew Carnegie on Monday, May 11, at 7:30 pm, in the community room of C.H. Booth Library, 25 Main Street (Route 25) in Newtown.

The presentation, entitled “Great Scot! It’s Andrew Carnegie,” will be performed by Richard Clark.

Carnegie was a self-made man, rising from a 13-year-old immigrant whose family had to borrow the money for the voyage, to an industrial giant. Like so many immigrant children, his first job was a menial mill job, but within two years he had taught himself telegraphy and began working for the Pennsylvania Railroad. He made such a good impression there that on the outbreak of the Civil War he was made Superintendent of Military Railways and Telegraph Lines at the age of 26.

Having accumulated some capital, Carnegie invested in new developments in railroads, oil and steel. Eventually concentrating on the steel industry, he formed Carnegie Steel, an integrated company controlling the resources and processes of steel making from beginning to end. He sold the company to JP Morgan in 1901 for over $225 million.

Carnegie was known for a ruthless approach to competitors and hard ways with his workers; he was called by some the “greediest little devil that ever lived.” Yet from 1901 until his death in 1919 he concentrated his efforts on funding social improvements.  Ever conscious of his own lack of formal schooling and the struggle to educate himself, his first and most famous contributions were to found libraries.

He was also instrumental in the support of higher education, including founding what is now Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh. He had written early on that there was “no idol more debasing than the worship of money ... the man who dies thus rich dies disgraced.” Later he was to add, “My aspirations take a higher flight. Mine be it to have contributed to the enlightenment and the joys of the mind, to the things of the spirit, to all that tends to bring into the lives of the toilers of Pittsburgh sweetness and light. I hold this the noblest possible use of wealth.” It is this split personality that Richard Clark will examine in his presentation.

Richard Clark is a professional actor, and studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Art, The Actor’s Connection, and the Actor’s Loft in New York. He developed his Keeping History Alive series of performances to bring such figures as Carnegie, Mark Twain, Ernest Hemingway, John Barrymore and William Shakespeare back to life, basing his interpretation on biographies, letters and writings of the figures.  He has previously appeared for the historical society in the person of Clarence Darrow.  

All Newtown Historical Society programs are free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served following the presentation.

For more information call 426-5937.