Philo Carpenter | |
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| Born | (1805-02-27)February 27, 1805 Savoy, Massachusetts |
| Died | August 7, 1886(1886-08-07) (aged 81) Chicago, Illinois |
| Burial place | Graceland Cemetery |
| Spouse | Ann Thompson |
| Children | 7 |
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Philo Carpenter (February 27, 1805 – August 7, 1886) wasChicago,Illinois' firstpharmacist,[1] and an outspokenabolitionist.
Born inSavoy, Massachusetts, February 27, 1805, young Philo learned medicine and the pharmaceutical trade inTroy, New York in the drugstore of Amatus Robins. He eventually gained a half interest in the business.[2] There he married Sarah Bridges in May 1830, but she died that November.
Joining the Presbyterian Church, in Troy, he gained an interest in missionary work.[3] Business and religion shaped much of the rest of his life.
Hearing from his cousin of the opportunities for both business and proselytizing in the then frontier, in 1832, he sold his share of the drugstore. Shipping ahead a supply of drugs and medical equipment, he moved toChicago, then an unincorporated village clustered aroundFort Dearborn. Arriving during acholera outbreak, he helped treat the victims.[3]
He opened the settlement's first drug store in a log cabin on what is now Lake Street. He made enough money in two years to afford to return to the East and get remarried to Ann Thompson.[3] They had seven children together.
Philo and Ann Carpenter's arrival in Chicago was a small turning point in the area's history, because they came into town in a fancy carriage. This was the first pleasure vehicle to arrive in Chicago, and the Carpenters' trip in such a carriage demonstrated that the area was safe from Indian attacks.
Carpenter invested heavily in real estate in the area surrounding what is nowLaSalle Street andWacker Drive, but thePanic of 1837 wiped him out, and his creditors took all of the land he had purchased. The area would be worth over $200 million today.[when?]
His pharmaceutical business soon allowed him to become financially solvent again. A religious man, he organized the Home Sunday School of the First Presbyterian Church. He was an elder in this church until theCivil War, when members of the congregation split over whether to support the North or the South.[2]
He then organized a new church, the First Congregational, and became deacon. Carpenter also was a member of theChicago Theological Seminary, and was managing director of theChicago Bible Society.[2]
In 1838, Carpenter helped to form and lead the Chicago chapter of the American Anti-Slavery Society, along withDr. Charles V. Dyer, Robert Freeman, andCalvin DeWolf.[4]
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He ran forMayor of Chicago twice on theLiberty Party ticket, losing toJohn Putnam Chapin in1846, and toJames Curtiss in1847.[5]
Carpenter served as a member of theChicago Board of Education.[2]
The aftermath of thefire of 1871 saw Carpenter in another leadership role as he organized theRelief and Aid Society.[citation needed] He also was a member of theChicago Board of Health, and was a crusader for temperance reform.[citation needed]
He died at his daughter's home in Chicago on August 7, 1886, and was buried atGraceland Cemetery.[6]
The first school to bear his name was built in 1868 on the same site, to the east of the present school which opened in 1957.[1] Carpenter School was closed in 2013. One of his daughters, Augusta Carpenter, is the namesake of Chicago's Augusta Boulevard.[7]
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