B

Bacheller, Irving (1859-1950)

Novelist, Lecturer and Rollins Trustee

Irving Bacheller was born on September 26, 1859 in Pierpont, New York. He spent his childhood working odd jobs to support his family while trying to attend school. ^[1] Although he never received a high school diploma, Bacheller attended St. Lawrence University where he founded the Alpha Omicron Chapter of Alpha Tau Omega. He received a B.S. and moved to New York to pursue a career in journalism. Bacheller became the editor of Daily Hotel Reporter and a year later joined the staff of the Brooklyn Daily Times as the Military and Naval Editor. In 1884 he received a promotion to Dramatic Editor for the Brooklyn Daily Times. The same year, he helped found the first newspaper syndicate in the United States.

Bacheller sold his first literary creation, a poem called “Whisperin’ Bill” to The Independent early in his career. Charles L. Webster & Co. published Bacheller’s first novel, The Master of Silence in 1892. One year later, Bacheller discovered Stephen Crane and helped serialize his most famous work The Red Badge of Courage. Bacheller later became the Sunday Edition Editor for Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World. In 1900 Bacheller published his most famous novel Eben Holden and it sold over 250,000 copies in its first year of publication. He retired from editing and journalistic work to devote himself full time to his fiction. He returned to journalism for only a brief time in 1917 when he served as a World War I correspondent in France.

In 1918 Bacheller arrived in Winter Park. He established an estate and named it “Gate O’ the Isles.” After he lived in Winter Park for a couple of years, he created the Irving Bacheller Essay Contest in 1920 to train young people to write effective and professional essays. From 1921 until 1930, he lectured at Rollins College. During his career as a lecturer he wrote three novels, In the Days of Poor Richard, Father Abraham, and Dawn. He continued his writing even after his tenure at Rollins ended, writing seven more novels before his death.

Bacheller was elected to the Rollins College Board of Trustees in 1922 and served until 1948. In 1925 he chaired a trustee search committee and convinced Hamilton holt to come to Rollins. Holt and Bacheller knew each other since Bacheller published his poems in The Independent, a publication that Holt edited. Bacheller received the Algernon Sidney Sullivan Medallion for integrity of character in 1927. In 1940 he received an honorary degree from Rollins College and later that year established the Irving Bacheller Professorship of Creative Writing. ^[2] Edwin Granberry was the first man elected to the position. In 1943 Bacheller left Winter Park for good and died seven years later in White Plains, New York on February 24, 1950.

-David Irvin

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Batchelor, Dick Neal (1843-1924)

Hospitable Settler & Civic Leader

Dick Neal Batchelor was born in Louisville, Kentucky on August 6, 1843. Batchelor attended the public schools in Louisville. He lived in several parts of the United States before moving to Kansas City, Missouri where he entered the grocery business. He resided in Missouri for nine years. ^[3] He married Mary Batchelor and had a son named De Haven Batchelor.

Batchelor arrived in Winter Park in 1883. He began a citrus growing business when he purchased orange groves in Winter Park and Sorrento, Florida. Following the death of his wife, Dick and his sister, Mary Batchelor Bull, made plans to build a house in Winter Park in 1885. The house was completed in 1886. It was one of the earliest homes in Winter Park. The house was located on the southeast corner of Osceola Avenue and Ollie Avenue. Dick named the home “Batchelor House.” The house had two stories with porches, gingerbread trim and a turret. The property measured 191 feet along Osceola Avenue and 439 feet along Ollie Avenue to Lake Virginia. It had a 140 feet front footage on the lake. The house was a popular boarding place in Winter Park and was also a show place for the community. After retiring from the citrus industry, Batchelor ran the “Batchelor House” as a hotel.

Batchelor worked as a postmaster for Winter Park in the mid 1880’s. He also served in the army during the Spanish American War. He witnessed the defeat of General Shatters’ army at Santiago. Later in life, he served as a member of the Winter Park City Council and started the first municipal beautification program by planting oak trees along city streets.^[4] Dick Neal Batchelor died from heart failure sitting at a city park at the age of 84 on June 11, 1926 in Winter Park. Batchelor is remembered as an early settler of the City of Winter Park who was involved in both the civic and social development of the city. ^[5] He made great efforts to beautify and develop Winter Park.

Five generations of the Batchelor family lived in the “Batchelor House” after Dick’s death. In 1957 Rollins College leased the “Batchelor House” to use as a temporary girl’s dormitory. In 1958, the owners of the house, Mrs. De Haven Batchelor and her grandsons, Richard and James, allowed the College to lease the house for one year. Rollins College had the option to renew the lease. In the fall of 1958 the College had a new dormitory built by the architect James Gamble Roger II. In 1960 the house was demolished and replaced by the Sutton Place South Apartment Complex. Today, Rollins College uses the apartment complex as a dormitory.

– Kerem K. Rivera

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Baker, Thomas (1837-1930)

Science Teacher and Early Civics Leader

Descended from Quaker parentage in Chester County, Pennsylvania on February 27, 1837, Samuel and Mary Baker gave birth Thomas Rakeshaw Baker. He graduated from the First Pennsylvania State Normal College in 1860, and later took special courses at the Pennsylvania State College. After teaching mathematics and natural science at these two institutions from 1860 to 1868, Baker spent a year at the University of Gottingen, where he received a degree of doctor of philosophy in 1871. Following the completion of his doctorate degree, Baker married Sophia Way of Chatham, Pennsylvania on March 25, 1876. They had one child together, Norman Lockyer (who later taught at Rollins and had a child, Florence Way Baker), and moved to Orlando, Florida in 1886, where they built a home at the north end of Orange Ave and managed a laboratory in the upper story of a windmill tower. In the lab, Baker underwent an investigation in order to determine the amount of alcohol in beverages and made an analysis of phosphate rock. The latter resulted from the discovery near Dunnellon, Marion County, where the first phosphate deposits were found in 1888, causing a phosphate craze to envelope in Florida.

Three years later, in 1889, Rollins College called upon Baker to substitute for Professor Robinson, who had been made State Chemist by the Governor of Florida. Indecently, Baker’s recommendation helped make this appointment. There Baker taught theoretical and experimental chemistry during the fall and winter terms. After a brief connection with the College, Rollins dropped Baker temporarily because they wanted someone who could not only teach chemistry and other sciences, but also German. A native German professor filled his place for a year, but later came into emphatic disfavor among college authorities, and by 1892, The College invited Baker to rejoin the faculty as an instructor of Chemistry, Physics, and German. For twenty-one years, Baker played an important part in the development of the Institution. He became the ideal teacher in the eyes of those around him, with Dr. Holt (President of Rollins College during that time) stating, “I remember when I first came down here and I said that the goal I wanted to set for myself, to associate here with me in the work of upbuilding Rollins a group of great teachers, and someone said, ‘You mean just like Dr. Baker’.” ^[6] Baker lived up to such an idealistic figure, receiving only $1000 a year for his efforts. He stayed grateful, nevertheless, and worked at the College until 1911, when at the age of 75, became director of the scientific museum that he had founded there and bore his name.

Even after his retirement, he maintained an active role in his community. Professor Baker authored three textbooks in physics and chemistry (Elements of Physics, A Short Course in Chemistry, and Practical Questions in Physics and Chemistry) read papers at four meetings of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and contributed many articles to Scientific American, Science, and American Journal of Science. Additionally, Baker became an expert in detection of arsenic, strychnine, and other poisons, and used his expertise to assist in court testimony. He became identified with his interest in the progressive movements of his community and state, and took an active role in the civic work of Winter Park, becoming its mayor in 1917. He held this post till 1918, and later that year, married distinguished botanist, Mary Evans Francis. Soon after his marriage, Baker suffered a bad fall, confining him to his room for almost a year. He passed away on March 10, 1930, at the age of 93. At the request of Mrs. Baker, his funeral services were held in Carnegie Library at Rollins College on the afternoon of March 11. Five brief tributes with two simple musical selections and a prayer at the cemetery constituted the funeral rites in accordance with Dr. Baker’s previously expressed wishes.

-Alia Alli

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Barrows, Nathan (1830-1900)

Charter Faculty

Nathan Barrows, born to Reverend Elijah Porter and Sarah Maria (Lee) Barrows on February 20, 1830, began his life in Hartford, Connecticut. He attended the Western Reserve College in Hudson, Ohio (now Case Western Reserve University), where he joined Phi Beta Kappa and from which Barrows received an Artium Baccalaureatus degree in 1850. Barrows also earned a Master of Arts degree from Western Reserve in 1853. In 1855, Barrows graduated from Cleveland Medical College as a Doctor of Medicine. After teaching for one year (1855-1856) at Philips Academy, he graduated from the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York City in 1857. Barrows then served as a house surgeon in Belleview Hospital from 1858 to 1859 and practiced medicine in Newark, New Jersey (1859-1860), New York City (1859-1859), Falmouth, Massachusetts (1862-1863), and Sandwich, Massachusetts (1863-1865). In 1861, the outbreak of the Civil War prompted Barrows to offer his services as a surgeon. He first joined a regiment of the New York Volunteers, which disbanded before reaching the front, and then attempted to enlist in the regular army, which rejected him on account of his poor eyesight. While living in Falmouth, Barrows decided to marry on December 20, 1862. Of the five children born to him and his wife, Susan E. Hanes, two survived.

Barrows then decided to focus on teaching, becoming the principal of Atkinson Academy in 1865. Between 1866 and 1862, Barrows also served as principal in Berwick Academy in Maine, Stevens High School in New Hampshire (which he also helped establish), and West Middle Grammar School in Connecticut. Additionally, Barrows taught mathematics at Kimball Union Free Academy in Meridan, New Hampshire, from 1871 to 1880. In 1882, Barrows departed New England for the south, living in Orange City, Florida until 1885. Barrows had an interest in botany and attempted to engage in fruit cultivation. Additionally, Barrows conducted some religious work, such as starting (and ministering) a Sunday school that eventually became one of thirteen Congregational Churches within the General Congregation Association of Florida, the organizer of Rollins College. Thus, in 1885 Barrows became a charter trustee of Rollins, a position he held until his resignation (as a consequence of declining health after a shipwreck experience two years prior) in 1894. At the Winter Park Congregational Church, Barrows functioned as a deacon, Sunday School superintendent, and teacher of the Bible class. Barrows moved to Massachusetts to pursue farming and died in East Bridgewater on March 3, 1900.

Barrow’s interests included church, community life, and academia. Thus, his colleagues and students remembered Barrows best for his commitment to Rollins, particularly as a math professor. From 1885 until 1895, Barrows taught mathematics with great enthusiasm. One student described him as “one of the most beloved and valuable teachers,” because of his “devotion to duty… ready wit, ability as a teacher, and gentleness of manner, combined with his stern severity when occasion demanded.” ^[7] Additionally, Barrows utilized his abilities in other fields to the benefit of his students, often instructing Amherst boys in botany during the summer, keeping Rollins current on astronomical events, and contributing geological samples to the campus museum. Barrows’ “faith and zeal in all good enterprises was a prominent characteristic in his life.” ^[8]

-Angelica Garcia

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Beach, Rex Ellingwood (1877-1949)

Famous Rollins Alumni and Prolific Outdoor Novelist

On September 1, 1877 on a stumpy farm in Atwood, Michigan, Henry Walter and Eva Enice Beach bore their third son, Rex Ellingwood Beach. At the age of seven, Rex moved with his family to Tampa, Florida, where his father became a squatter under the Homestead Act. ^[9] There, Henry Beach opened up a broom shop and prospered so his son, Rex, could attend college.

At the age of fourteen, Rex was sent to Rollins College as a member of the class of 1897. From the beginning, Rex was a non-conformist. He crusaded against the strict regulations of the day— dates only one time a week, no smoking, and curfew at 10:30 p.m. for boys. ^[10] He continuously broke such rules and was eventually reprimanded by President Hooker, the first President of the College, for boating on Lake Virginia on a Sunday. He was later suspended for several weeks for attending a party in Orlando. Shortly after such incidents, Beach decided to get involved in “legal” activities; he became local editor of The Sandspur, began playing intercollegiate baseball, and joined the Kappa Alpha fraternity. Despite such involvement, he left the College his junior year to study law in Chicago. In the Fall 1896, Beach enrolled at Chicago College of Law, where he played football with the Chicago Athletic Association team and captained the water polo team. By the summer of the next year, he decided to join the 1897 Klondike rush to Alaska. Beach returned to Chicago two years later and enrolled in the Kent College of Law. Just two years after that, he journeyed back to Alaska upon hearing of the Nome strike. There, he struck gold at the grass roots on the bank of a creek three miles inland from Nome.

By Fall 1902, Beach returned to Chicago, where he decided to write about his frontier experience. McClure Magazine immediately published his short story, “The Mule Driver and the Garrulous Mute.” Directly after, Beach wrote his first best-seller, The Spoilers, which eventually sold 700,000 copies, and made into a movie. ^[11] This success prompted Beach to eventually write thirty-three novels, hundreds of articles, and two successful plays. In the midst of his success, Beach met and married Greta Edith Crater, sister of Allene Crater, who later married the comedian and dancer Fred Stone. Beach’s career continued to soar. Beach was awarded both an Honorary Bachelor of Science degree and an Honorary Doctor of Literature degree by Rollins College in addition to being elected President of the Rollins Alumni Association (RAA).

By middle age, Beach had a desire to return to the soil. He purchased 7,000 acres of wilderness near Sebring, Florida, clearing the land and turning it into productive acreage. Towards the end of his lifetime, Beach found himself gradually descending into helplessness. He was going blind despite four cataract operations, and soon, could only recognize people by their voices. After two years of fighting throat cancer, he calmly decided to give in. On the morning of December 7, 1949, Beach shot himself. Rollins College buried his ashes, along with his wife’s, by the Alumni House on campus. In further remembrance of this remarkable figure, the College erected a dorm hall bearing his name.

-Alia Alli

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Blackman, Lucy Worthington (1860-1942):

Educator, Historian and Community Activist

Educator, historian and community activist Lucy Worthington Blackman was an important player in the early years of Rollins College and the Winter Park community where her influence extended far beyond her initial role as the wife of the college president. As founder of the College’s domestic science program, an active clubwoman at the local, state and national levels, and the author of a history of Florida women, Blackman worked tirelessly to press for educational improvements and social reform and to recognize the influence of women in society.

Born July 1, 1860 in Steubenville, Ohio, Blackman was schooled in private institutions followed by three years of travel and study in Europe. Although she took courses at several universities, she never received a degree. She married clergyman William Fremont Blackman on July 1, 1884, and supported his work as a professor at Yale University and then as president of Rollins College for thirteen years (1902-1915). They were the parents of three children: Berkeley (’07), Worthington (’10) and Marjorie Blackman (’11).

When the couple came to Rollins College, Lucy Worthington Blackman quickly became involved with the life of the campus and the surrounding community. The President’s House became the center of many social and cultural gatherings. That same year, Blackman established the coeducational college’s Domestic Science Department – the first in Florida – to provide sewing and cooking courses. At the time such courses were considered “wholly compatible with, or even essential to, a girl’s education,” wrote Blackman, who taught the classes for two years until the school found funding for a trained teacher and supporting equipment. ^[12]

A year later, Blackman’s charm and patience as a hostess was tested when she entertained the “eccentric and unpredictable” Chicago philanthropist, Daniel K. Pearsons, for two months as a houseguest. ^[13] Her hospitality to this “capricious man” enabled the College to earn his goodwill and financial support of $50,000 for the College’s original endowment. ^[14] She also organized the Ladies Auxiliary of Rollins, a group composed of faculty and trustee wives that raised money for the school. ^[15]

In 1903 Blackman joined the fledgling Florida Audubon Society, established in nearby Maitland to press for legal protection of the state’s birds and education and marketing efforts to save them. She served for many years as a vice president and a member of its executive committee (her husband was president for many years) and in 1935 penned a history of the organization. ^[16]

Blackman’s most notable role, however, was her work with the clubwomen movement that began in the late 19th Century as women became active in seeking remedies to societal ills. Blackman was a member of a number of women’s groups, including the Woman’s Club of Winter Park, which she helped found in 1915, the League of Women Voters, and the Business and Professional Women’s Club. Blackman served as president from 1923-26 for the Florida Federation of Women’s Clubs, the statewide umbrella for women’s groups around the state that pressed for legislation on a number of fronts, from conservation to prison reform to child welfare. The following two years Blackman chaired the education department of the General Federation of Women’s Clubs, the national organization that carried great political clout in the United States. ^[17]

Her work with women from across the state inspired Blackman to write a two-volume history, entitled The Women of Florida, published in 1940. “It is high time that this were done,” Blackman wrote, noting many local and state histories “deal in the main with men only; their authors seem to have been oblivious to the fact that in all these years there have been women in Florida…” ^[18] The history, the first of its kind in the South, offered accounts of women in Florida since its earliest times and provided biographies of women active in different state organizations. “In view of the changes taking place in the social, political, industrial, and financial institutions in our country, it seems a propitious and an appropriate time to make inquiry into the value of the part women can claim in the making of the commonwealth, and in particular the period during the past half-century covering their ‘awakening’ and the use of their reluctantly bestowed citizenship,” Blackman wrote. ^[19]

After William Blackman’s retirement, the couple moved to Wekiva Ranch, located on the St. Johns River, where they raised cattle, hogs, fruits and vegetables. There, at age 58, Lucy Blackman often spent a large part of the day on horseback. ^[20] In later years the couple moved back to Winter Park, where William Blackman died in 1932.

At the Rollins Semi-Centennial in 1935, College President Hamilton Holt awarded Blackman the Rollins Decoration of Honor, noting that there “is not an old student of this College who could not and would not testify to your devotion to the faculty and student body during the entire time that your husband was President of Rollins.” ^[21] Seven years later at her funeral, Holt remembered her as “queenly, gracious, large, dignified, friendly.” ^[22] He noted that it was “difficult if not impossible to name a woman in Florida who has done more or been more in the last fifty years than Lucy Worthington Blackman.” ^[23]

She and her husband are buried in Winter Park.

– Leslie Poole

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Blackman, William Fremont (1855-1932)

Fourth Rollins President

 

Orpah (Freeman) Blackman, wife of John Smith Blackman, gave birth to William Fremont Blackman on September 26, 1855 in North Pitcher, New York. Blackman held a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Oberlin College, a Bachelor of Divinity degree from Yale Divinity School, and a doctorate (magna cum laude) from Cornell University. He also conducted graduate studies at the Berlin University (Royal Statistical Bureau, 1893) and the College de France in Paris (1894), and received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree in 1910 from the University of Florida. Upon his graduation from Yale, Blackman held pastorates at congregational churches in Steubenville, Ohio, Naugatuck, Connecticut, and Ithaca, New York. Blackman married Lucy Worthington on July 1, 1880, with whom he had three children: Berkeley, Worthington, and Marjorie. In 1893 Blackman served as a professor of Christian ethics at Yale and editor of the Yale Review until 1901, when he lectured on social philosophy and ethics. During 1902, however, Blackman turned his attention to Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida.

In 1902 , Blackman became the president-elect of Rollins. He assumed office on April 2, 1903 and remained president of the school for thirteen years. As president, Blackman stressed high quality in education, stating that Rollins should strive for “quality, highest standards of scholarship, thoroughness of work, fineness of result.” ^[24] He also raised the first permanent Endowment Fund to help supplement student fees and secured donations to construct the first three fireproof buildings during his expansion of the college’s campus: a library, science hall, and men’s dormitory. Blackman fought for the accreditation of Rollins College at the state and national level and, in the process released the school from the denominational tie to the Congregationalists. In addition, Blackman taught sociology, politics, and economics. The Board of Trustees elected Blackman as president-emeritus on February 20, 1927. Blackman resigned from the Presidency in 1915 and purchased Wekiwa Ranch near Sanford, Florida.

Blackman also had a significant role in the development in Winter Park, stating, “I believe in Florida.” ^[25] He founded, and then headed as president, the Bank of Winter Park from 1911 until 1918. The Florida Conference of Charities and Corrections, an organization of educators that dealt with sociological challenges, elected him as president in 1912. In 1913, Blackman joined the Commission on Family Life of the Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America. In addition, in 1917 the governor of Florida appointed him as a member of the Florida Livestock Sanitary Board, which he served as until 1921. That year, he also became president of the Florida Audubon Society because of his interest in birds and conservation; he urged the enactment of conservation laws, inspected bird rookeries, served as chairman of the Conservation Committee of the Florida State Chamber of Commerce, and campaigned for conservation publicity. Blackman managed the Florida Tick Eradication Committee of the Southern Settlement and Development Organization. His attempts, as personal representative of the secretary of the interior and United States commissioner of reclamation, to aid the passage of a measure in Congress to resettle soldiers returning from World War I, however, did not succeed. Blackman also authored several works, including The Making of Hawaii – a Study in Social Evolution (1899), and A History of Orange County (1927), as well as several monographs on conservation, ornithology, religion, and education. He died in Winter Park on August 9, 1932; his funeral service took place in Knowles Chapel, on the Rollins Campus.

– Angelica Garcia

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Bradley, Udolpho Theodore (1900-1968)

History Professor and Outstanding Crew Coach

Born on December 10, 1900 in Frankfurt, Kentucky to Mary Lawson Hawkins and William Edward Bradley, Udolpho Theodore Bradley received his early education in New York and Pennsylvania, respectively. From 1911 to 1915, Bradley attended the Horace Mann School in New York City, then the Hill School in Pottstown from 1915 to 1919. Bradley’s early experiences at Camp Pasquaney (1913 to 1925) in New Hampshire as a camper, councilor, and member of the crew team demonstrate an early interest in the sport; he later coached the camp’s team. In 1919 Bradley attended the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, in which he participated in track, football, and the plebe crew; he dropped out. In 1921, Bradley began to attend Princeton University in New Jersey, where he earned a varsity crew letter in 1922, joined the Varsity and Elm Clubs, and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 1923. After his graduation, Bradley coached the crew team, taught English, history, and American history, in addition to assisting in French, Latin, and mathematics, until 1931. He married Cecile Thibault Robinson on January 12, 1926 and, in the following year, attended summer semesters at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Bradley earned his master’s degree at Cornell, graduating in 1930. From 1931 until 1933 , he attended the school full-time, as he worked on his doctoral degree. Bradley majored in United States history, minored in European and English history, and received his doctorate in 1933, after which he joined the Rollins College faculty as a professor of history and government in the fall.

Bradley served as the Rollins crew coach beginning in 1934, becoming one of the pioneer coaches of crew in the South. He founded the Dad Vail Rowing Association on February 10, 1939. In addition, he functioned as the assistant professor of history and government (1933 to 1937), associate professor of history (1937 to 1942), secretary of the division in human relations (1938 to 1939), and professor of history (1942). From 1942 until 1945, Bradley took a hiatus from Rollins to serve in the Navy as a Lieutenant Commander in Puerto Rico during the Second World War, ending his term of service with a six-month history professorship at Annapolis. In the December of 1953, he retired from the United States Naval Reserve (U.N.S.R.) and returned to Rollins to re-start the crew program. Bradley again coached the crew team from 1946 until 1965 and, in 1963 brought the Rollins crew to row in the Henley Regatta in England. He became the faculty-director of rowing in 1965 until his death on November 25, 1968. Although he taught, students described him as “kind of like the absent-minded professor. He has his mind on crew and nothing else seems to enter his field of vision…. He’s a most dedicated man.” ^[26] Bradley earned the Rollins Declaration of Honor from the school in 1949. In addition to his roles at Rollins, Bradley officiated Intercollegiate Rowing Association (I. R. A.) regattas at Poughkeepsie, Marietta, and Syracuse, as well as several Olympic try-outs. He was a member of the All Saints Episcopal Church. He authored the official history of the Dad Veil Rowing Association: The Dad Veil Story. In 1965 Bradley received the honor of an induction into the Helms Foundation Rowing Hall of Fame. Hamilton Holt commended Bradley as a “college professor, an outstanding coach of winning crews and a good citizen.” ^[27]

– Angelica Garcia

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Brown (Browne), Mary E. (1822-1909)

Early Settler and Prominent Resident

Mary Elizabeth Brown was born on June 26, 1822 in Albany, New York. Her parents were David and Elizabeth Brown. David Brown worked as an Episcopalian Priest who frequently went on mission trips to Florida. Mary likely accompanied her father on some of those trips. She and her childhood friend, Mary McClure taught at Northwestern University before moving to Florida in 1876. Both women had family friends, such as the Comstocks, the Geers, and Richmond families who spoke highly of Central Florida.

Brown and McClure purchased ten acres of land off of Lake Sylvan and built their own homestead. These women differed from early Winter Park settlers, because they were single female homesteaders. They came to the region as two retired teachers with only a modest life savings, in contrast to many early Winter Park residents who had success in business. ^[28] Although Mary Brown and Mary McClure came to Florida as middle aged women, neither age nor gender proved to be an obstacle for them. In fact, they often referred to their own home as “No Man’s Land.” ^[29] Brown and McClure always helped those who required their aid. Unlike many of Winter Park’s early residents, Brown and McClure lived in the community year round. They possessed a pioneer’s spirit and did not simply look to retire. ^[30] Brown’s resilient and independent nature can be seen in her diary.

Defying stereotypes, over the years Brown purchased and sold property for a profit. She contributed to the community’s intellectual growth by giving lectures on literature and supported the construction of schools, libraries, and churches. ^[31] Brown also drew attention in the community with a mule named “Johnny Brown” that acted as a companion to Brown and McClure. ^[32]

Mary Brown died on November 16, 1909 at the age of eighty-seven. Brown recorded much of her life in her diary. Housed in the Winter Park Public Library, the diary, lists daily activities, social events, financial information, cooking recipes, and valuable insights into the history living in early Winter Park. ^[33]

– David Irvin

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Burton, Richard Eugene (1861-1940)

Poet, Literary Authority, and Popular Lecturer

Son of Reverend Nathaniel Judson and Rachel (Chase) Burton, Richard Eugene (born March 14, 1861) grew up in the literary environment of Hartford, Connecticut. His friends and neighbors included individuals such as Yale’s popular English professor, William Lyon Phelps; actors Otis Skinner and William Gillette; Charles D. Warner; Harriet Beecher Stowe; and Mark Twain. In 1883, Burton received his bachelor’s degree from Trinity College, in Hartford. Burton conducted his graduate studies at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, and obtained his doctoral degree in 1888. For the next year, Burton served as the managing editor for New York’s newspaper The Churchman. In 1889, he married divorcee Agnes Rose Parkhurst (Tingley), and traveled in Europe until 1890.

When Burton returned from abroad, he became the literary editor of the newspaper publication, The Hartford Courant, until 1897. From 1897 to 1899, Burton functioned as associate editor of Warner’s Library of the World’s Best Literature, also assuming a position as the head of the English department at the University of Minnesota in 1898. He left that post in 1902 to edit for the Lothrop Publishing Company (until 1904) and lecture professionally on the subject of English literature at the University of Chicago in Illinois (until 1906). From 1906 to 1925, Burton once again headed the English department at the University of Minnesota and, from 1921 until 1933 lectured on literature at Colombia University in New York. Additionally, in 1925 Burton became the president of Richard Burton Schools. Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York, also benefited from his services as a lecturer on literature from 1928 to 1931. In 1930, Burton joined the board of editors for the Book League of America (to 1940) and became the editor in the department of literature for Warner Brothers Pictures (to 1934). During the production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1935), Warner Brothers appointed Burton as a literary adviser. Burton remarried in 1931, this time to Ruth Cuthrie Harding.

As a lecturer in very high demand, Burton did not join the Rollins faculty until 1933, at the age of seventy-two. Students found him inspiring, engaging, and a person who valued every moment. “If I were Dr. Burton now,” one former pupil stated, “I’d probably take out my gold watch— as he so often did towards the end of class— and say, ‘Good! We have three minutes left! I’m going to take every last one of them.” ^[34] Burton continued in the capacity of lecturer until his death from a cerebral hemorrhage on April 8, 1940. Although had no children, Burton left behind dozens of books on drama and fiction, such as Dumb in June (1895), biographies, special studies, and copious amounts of poetry. Additionally, Burton participated in many organizations, such as the National Institute of Arts and Letters, Drama League of America, New York Drama League, Simplified Spelling Board, Pulitzer Committees (such as those on fiction and biography), Voltaire Association, Phi Beta Kappa, Theta Alpha Phi, and the Rollins Amhurst Players. Truly an accomplished individual, determined to incite enthusiasm for literature amongst his students, he might be described with a line from one of his poems,

 

“A Modern Saint,

No Medieval mystery, no crowned,

Dim figure, halo-ringed, uncanny bright.

A modern saint: a man who treads earth’s ground,

And ministers to men with all his might.” ^[35]

 

– Angelica Garcia

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Bush, Archibald G. (1887-1966)

Charitable Tycoon

Archibald Granville Bush was born on March 5, 1887 in Granite Falls, Minnesota to Emma H. and Thomas G. Bush. He was the third of five children. A few months before his birth, the Bush family moved from Texas to a 240-acre farm in the Minnesota River valley, approximately 130 miles from St. Paul. Bush and his brothers and sisters attended a three-room school in East Granite Falls, Minnesota, ^[36] which was located three miles from their home. The siblings traveled to school by foot or horseback no matter how severe the weather. Archibald was known for speaking out in class if he disagreed with the teacher and exuded leadership and organization skills early on in life. ^[37]

After graduating from the public schools of Minnesota, Archibald spent his winters assisting his father on the farm, and when there was less farm work to do he attended classes in town. ^[38] Bush was prepared to teach but decided against that idea upon learning that he could only earn $40 per month. ^[39] In 1908 he attended the Duluth Business School in Minnesota. A year later he began to work for the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company (also known as 3M) as an assistant bookkeeper. A few months later he was promoted to cost accountant of the company and gradually moved up the corporate ladder. These promotions did not come easily. Bush experienced many obstacles, discouragements and experiences that would have easily caused many to quit.

Bush married Edyth D. Bassler on November 11, 1919. Two years later he was elected as director of 3M. In 1925 he was named the national general sales manager of the company. By 1948 Bush had been appointed vice president of 3M. In 1949 he was appointed the chairman of the executive committee of the board of directors for 3M, and also became a winter resident of Winter Park, Florida. While in Winter Park, Bush became involved within the business community. He was the founder, chairman of the board and director of the Commercial Bank in Winter Park. He was also the chairman of the board of South Seminole Bank of Fern Park, director of the First National Bank and Winter Park Telephone Company.

Community was an important aspect of Mr. Bush’s life. He provided funds for the Winter Park Memorial Hospital, DePugh Nursing Home, the Maitland Civic Center, Rollins College and many more organizations. ^[40] Bush believed that wealth entailed a great social responsibility. He stated, “Wealth should be used for the benefit of all humanity.” ^[41] In keeping with his philosophy, Archibald created The Bush Foundation in 1953 to help those in need and provide funds for education programs. In 1952 he was elected to the board of trustees of Rollins College.

On March 5, 1965 Bush donated $800,000 towards the construction of a science center at Rollins. ^[42] The building featured a 347-seat auditorium, a 94-seat demonstration lecture room, 19 offices, faculty lounge and a science library for 15,000 volumes among many other things. Bush also made many generous donations to the College including $50,000 towards the Crummer School of Finance and Business Administration. In 1965 Rollins College awarded Archibald a Doctor of Science degree. His wife was also awarded a Doctor in Humanities degree. In 1966 Mrs. Bush gave a donation that allowed Rollins endow the permanent Chair of Mathematics. In 1969 The Bush Foundation made possible the endowment of the Chair of Natural Science.

Archibald Granville Bush died on January 16, 1966 at his Winter Park home. Since his involvement with the College, Bush donated over $1,600,000 to Rollins. ^[43] His generosity had a great impact on both the Winter Park and Rollins communities. He began his career as a laborer and single-handedly worked his way up to the top of an industrial giant. As Rollins College President Hugh McKean stated, Archibald Bush is “living proof of the validity of the American faith in progress and man’s ability to build constantly for a better world.” ^[44]

-Kerem K. Rivera

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Bush, Edyth Bassler (1879-1972)

Actress, Playwright, and Donor

Edyth Bassler Bush was born in 1879 in Chicago, Illinois to Sarah and Eugene Bassler. Her father’s untimely death left her financially responsible for her family. Edyth ventured into the world of theatre and produced an opera at the age of 13. ^[45] At 14, Edyth began teaching drama and dancing classes. She broke into the professional acting world at the age of 16. ^[46] Edyth was well on her way to stardom when she met Archibald Granville Bush, a businessman from St. Paul, Minnesota. She married Mr. Bush on November 11, 1919 and left the stage to become a housewife. ^[47] Her husband worked his way up the corporate ladder becoming the principal stockholder of the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company by 1921. He was worth more than $300 million.

Along with supporting her husband, Edyth continued writing plays throughout her life. She wrote over a dozen plays, several of which were produced over the years. The first play she wrote while married to Bush was La Gamine, focusing on a love affair between Ferdinand Archduke of Austria-Hungary and Carlotta LeCouvrier. The play premiered in December 1939 at the Theatre Guild of Minneapolis and St. Paul. The play was also performed at Rollins College in February of 1956. In 1941 she built, directed, and operated her own theatre called the “Little Theatre” in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Edyth moved to Winter Park, Florida with her husband in 1949. While in Winter Park, the Bushs’ made generous contributions to many community organizations including Rollins College, established several local banks, and Archibald created his own foundation. Edyth established her own foundation, today known as The Edyth Bush Charitable Foundation, with the intent of providing grants to charitable, religious, and educational organizations that serve the underprivileged. Edyth also established The Edyth Bush Theatre in Orlando’s Lake Formosa neighborhood. Edyth received a Doctor of Humanities from Rollins College on December 24, 1965.

Edyth remained in her $71 million estate in Winter Park after her husband’s death in January of 1966 ^[48]. She donated $615,000 to Rollins College to endow a chair of mathematics and help cover expenses for the Archibald Granville Bush Science Center promised by her husband. ^[49]

Edyth Bush died on November 20, 1972 in Winter Park, Florida. The Bushs did not have any children. Much of their estate was left to the foundations they created.

Edyth will always be remembered as a devoted wife, talented artist and compassionate person.

– Kerem K. Rivera