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July 6, 2020
#325
Thank you,
Barbara Schock, for sharing your extraordinary gift of these vignettes of Galesburg &
19th century American history.
John Fiske, Philosopher
(b. March 30, 1842- d. July 4, 1901) |
John Fiske By Barbara
Schock
In his autobiography, ALWAYS THE YOUNG STRANGERS, Carl
Sandburg describes his family’s decision to send his older sister, Mary, to high
school. She was a good student and she could get a job as a teacher after
graduating. Her income would help the family.
When the time came for Carl’s completion of eighth grade,
it was expected that he would go to work at whatever job he could find. His
earnings would also provide for the family’s welfare, but they would be less.
His curiosity and desire for knowledge led him to read one of the textbooks Mary
brought home as part of the high school curriculum.
The book was titled CIVIL GOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED
STATES. It was written by John Fiske and published in 1890. Carl began reading
it and his eyes were opened to what is government, who has taxing power and why
policemen wear uniforms, among many other things. He read the entire United
States Constitution printed in the book. The history of the document and the
qualities of the men who wrote it were thoroughly explained.
Young Sandburg was glad his sister had been able to go to
high school and bring the book home so he could read it. He felt that one book
was worth whatever had been necessary for the whole family to send Mary to high
school.
John Fiske, the author of the book, was a New Englander.
He was born March 30, 1842, in Hartford, CT, to Edmund B. Green and Mary Fisher
Bond. Green was a newspaper editor and died while working in Panama in 1852.
Mrs. Green remarried several years later and her son took the name of her
grandfather, John Fiske
In 1863 the younger John Fiske graduated from Harvard and
completed his law degree in 1865. He never practiced. During his college years
he began writing for periodicals in the United States as well as Britain on the
subjects of history and philosophy.
Fiske became interested in the work of Charles Darwin and
began to write and lecture on the subject. The public became aware of many of
his writings because of the Darwin connection.
In 1887 Fiske and James Grant Wilson edited the
APPLETON’S ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. It became a standard reference in
public libraries until the computer age.
On July 4, 1901, John Fiske died in East Gloucester, MS.
The date was the 125th anniversary of the founding of the United States of
America. John Fiske had made many contributions to the public’s knowledge of its
most important founding document, the Declaration of Independence.
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