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| Charles N Ettinger in 1886 |
Sylvia Averill nee Ettinger had an interesting family history. Some of it we were never told. While Grandma Averill was a died-in-the-wool Republican, it turns out her grandfather was a socialist - maybe. What's more, he was a mildly famous socialist. His name was Charles N. Ettinger.
Charles was the great grandchild of two different Revolutionary War soldiers from Pennsylvania. He was born near Lowell in Dodge County, Wisconsin in 1849. Later he married the Aunt of the woman who founded the Job's Daughters organization where they made their home in Chicago. However, rather than digress, following is the story of Ettinger's later life and his supposed connection to socialism. It was a life filled with tragedy and one that I don't recall ever hearing from Sylvia.
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| Socialist? |
While few newspapers of Ettinger's time really reported about socialism, the clipping at right contains a letter he wrote on the subject late in his life. Click on the image for a much larger version. The clipping is from the Beaver Dam Argus, published on Friday, February 19, 1909 on Page 4. Beaver Dam is about ten miles from Lowell. Letters such as this one were probably why most newspapers referred to Charles Ettinger as "The Socialist Poet." Luckily, the manner of his death in May 1909, generated over 130 newspaper clippings that allowed piecing together some of his story. In short, many of the articles things along the lines of "...it is said that Ettinger for a time was an instructor at the Spencerian college at Milwaukee. While there, he met and became a fast friend of Robert G. Ingersoll." Some articles also indicated he "... is said to have been at one time an associate of the late President W. R. Harper, of the University of Chicago."
Robert Ingersoll was quite famous back in the day and there is an extensive article about him here, in Wikipedia. However, Robert was not famous for socialism, but rather for being a free thinker agnostic during the Golden Age of Freethought. His nickname was "The Great Agnostic." He fought in the Civil War and then became a Republican when that party was the main advocate of diversity, equity and inclusion. He spoke to nominate James G Blaine at the 1876 Republican Convention, though Rutherford Hayes (who abandoned Reconstruction) became the nominee and President. Among other things, he supported a more lenient policy toward Chinese workers coming to the United States. Later, Ingersoll spoke at the 1896 Republican Convention that nominated William McKinley and suffered a heart problem that led to his death in 1899. While Ingersoll was unusual for his time of being an agnostic freethinker, he was not a socialist by any stretch of the imagination.
As for the Spencerian college at Milwaukee, it turns out that it was a business college, better known as "Spencerian Business College" or "Spencerian College of Business." It was founded in 1863 and referred to itself as "The Old and Reliable School of Business. It operated independently until 1973 when it affiliated with Concordia University. It merged fully into Concordia in December 1974 and Concordia still operates. There are articles about the college here and here.
W. R. Harper, also known as William Rainey Harper, was the first president of the University of Chicago in 1891. He also had a background as a Baptist clergyman. There is an extensive article about him here, in Wikipedia. As in the case of Ingersoll, he was not noted as a socialist. Instead, he was selected to help organize the University of Chicago by John D. Rockefeller. One of his major accomplishments was to organize extension schools and an affiliation program that led to the foundation of American community colleges. Harper also founded the Religious Education Organization in 1903.
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| Charles Ettinger - Agitated |
Checking for stories about Ettinger and socialism reveal only the article up above and, while he might be somewhat sympathetic to socialism, it would hardly support the notion of Charles Ettinger as a socialist agitator. Indeed, it appears that the newspapers were engaging in a bit of "news invention" themselves, along the lines of what cable "news" channels do nowadays. Typical is the article, at left, from The Labor World (Duluth, Minnesota) article at left dated June 12, 1909. One thing the article omits in connection with the Spencerian College of Milwaukee is that it was founded in 1863, when the socialist agitator cofounder was aged 14. Somehow, I think the founder claim lacks credibility. Similarly, While Charles was certainly not totally conventional, evidence of him agitating for socialism is thin indeed. He was, however, somewhat of a poet and was not afraid to engage with his viewpoint. Indeed, apparently he left a poem with his family the morning he disappeared to drown himself in Lake Michigan.
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| Jessie Ettinger suicide |
All of this drama really arose after Charles died by drowning himself in Lake Michigan. While the newspapers somewhat dramatized this, the truth is simpler. Jessie Ettinger, daughter of Charles and Olive Ettinger killed herself on June 3, 1899 by throwing herself under the wheels of a Chicago train. Compounding the tragedy, her older brother, Everett, witnessed the suicide, though he only later learned it was his sister. Everett was Daisy Glenn Ettinger's husband in later days and also the father of Sylvia. At that time, newspaper headlines such as that from the Kansas City Star; "Saw his sister kill herself" were typical. Soon, Jessie's mother, Olive went into a decline. The day before Olive's death on April 1, 1904, a newspaper (don't know the paper name) exclaimed "I want to see Jessie, beautiful Jessie." Little wonder that Charles became despondent. Earlier, his brother Louis had been committed to a Dodge County, Wisconsin insane asylum and later, his grandson William Ettinger would similarly be committed to Elgin State Hospital for the insane in Illinois. Perhaps Sylvia was nervous that it ran in the family.
Charles and his wife Olive were both buried in unmarked graves at Rosehill Cemetery in Chicago. Presumably Jessie was buried in the same location.
