Shelby County AlArchives Biographies.....Aldrich, William Farrington March 10, 1853 - October 30, 1925
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/al/alfiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Carolyn Golowka alabamagengal@gmail.com July 11, 2008, 1:00 pm

Author: "The National Cyclopedia of American Biography," published 1894, pages 65-66

ALDRICH, William Farrington, philanthropist, was born in Palmyra, Wayne county, 
N. Y., March 10, 1853, son of William F. Aldrich, a prominent lawyer and 
financier, who died in 1878, and in memory of whom the son endowed a bed in the 
Child's hospital in Cincinnati, O. His mother, Louisa Klapp Aldrich, was a 
direct descendant of Gen. Barker of revolutionary fame, and a leader in social 
and literary circles in western New York. His parents removed to New York city 
in 1865 and the son continued his primary education, that had been begun in the 
Union school of Palmyra, in the public schools of New York city, supplemented 
by a course at Warren's military academy, Poughkeepsie, N. Y. He adopted the 
profession of civil engineer, and his first public work was on the roads and 
boulevards radiating from Newark and Orange, N. J. In 1874 he removed to 
Alabama, and settled in the central part of the state, in the coal regions, 
where he established the village of Aldrich, organizing the Montevalo coal and 
transportation company, of which he was made president and general manager. He 
soon built up a flourishing town, with stores, school-houses, churches, miners' 
dwellings, a model farm and private residences, including "Rajah Lodge," his 
own beautiful home. In 1889 he married Josephine Cables, of Rochester, N. Y., a 
lady of acknowledged literary ability, wonderful spiritual insight, and 
possessing a charming personality. Mr. Aldrich was baptized in the faith of his 
mother, who was a member of the Protestant Episcopal church. His father was a 
beloved and upright member of the Society of Friends (Quakers). The son's 
studies led him to adopt the broad platform of the universal brotherhood of 
humanity as the common origin and ultimate end of all religious teachings, and 
the true and only basis of the future universal church. He could find good in 
all the creeds, and contributes liberally to the support of each, but has not 
selected for himself any one sect. He makes a practical application of his rule 
of life in the conduct of his mining village, where the white and black 
employees live in perfect harmony, with few regulations save the Golden rule. 
They need no police; no whiskey is sold; no cruelty to children or animals is 
permitted. 
The universal desire to do right for the sake of right, and the evident and 
immediate rewards attendant upon right doing pervade the place and stimulate 
and determine the conduct of the whole community.  Mr. Aldrich is the personal 
friend of all his employees, and his gentle dignity and exact judgment win 
their respect and affection. He made a careful study of the origin and aims of 
secret societies, of the religious of the east, and of the occult sciences. He 
is a Knight templar and a 82d degree Mason, and occupies a high position among 
the brethren of that ancient and honorable institution. He takes no partisan 
position in politics, but is ever jealous of the rights of the poor and 
friendless. With his tenderhearted 
and sympathetic wife he was the originator and first to advocate the creation 
of a new office in the courts, that of public defender in contradistinction of 
the office of public prosecutor, or district attorney; the officer to have all 
the privileges and he clothed with the same rights before the grand jury and 
court, his duty being the defense of the poor am I unfortunate who have no 
means of employing the best legal talent.  Mr. Aldrich made a public appeal in 
behalf of such an office before the Woman's national liberal union convention 
in Washington, Feb. 25. 1890, and has presented the same ideas to many of the 
United Slates senators, to the Federation of labor at Baltimore, and to 
prominent church congresses. He believes in 
solving the financial question by the free coinage of gold and silver by weight 
and not by value.


File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/al/shelby/bios/aldrich784gbs.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/alfiles/

File size: 4.5 Kb