Dudley Leavitt Pickman
Encyclopedia
Dudley Leavitt Pickman was a Salem, Massachusetts
, merchant who built one of the great Salem trading firms during the seaport's ascendancy as a trading power in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Pickman was a partner in the firm Devereux, Pickman & Silsbee and a state senator. Among the wealthiest Salem merchants of his day, Pickman used his own clipper ships
to trade with the Far East
in an array of goods ranging from indigo and coffee to pepper and spices, and was one of the state's earliest financiers, backing everything from cotton and woolen mills to railroads to water-generated power plants. Pickman also helped found what is today's Peabody Essex Museum
.
, an early Congregational minister in Salem, and his wife Mary (Pickering) Leavitt, sister of United States Secretary of State
Timothy Pickering
. William Pickman secured his son a position in 1799 as a clerk for Chief Customs Collector
Major Joseph Hiller. After working briefly for Hiller, Dudley Leavitt Pickman left the Customs Service in 1799 to go to sea as a ship's supercargo
– business agent for the owner.
Pickman embarked on a merchant's career as a young man. He helped found the East-India Marine Society (today's Peabody Essex Museum
) of Salem in November 1800. (Joining two months prior was the eminent Salem merchant Elias Hasket Derby
as well as Nathaniel Bowditch
). In 1804 the East-India Marine Society moved to the Pickman Building on Essex Street, which had been specially fitted for the society.
Early in his career, Pickman traveled to India
as supercargo on a ship belonging to several Salem merchants. In his diary of the journey, Journal of the Belisarius, Pickman noted the appearance of the British fort at Calcutta
: "Fort St. George is a handsome brick fortification. It appears very strong, but is probably too much extended to make as able a defense as might otherwise be done."
Pickman kept journals on several of his other voyages as supercargo and then owner, and as its charter required, these journals were filed with the East-India Marine Society of Salem. These early documents show the vast reach of the large Salem trading houses. In 1799–1800, for instance, Pickman noted that the Belisarius had traveled first to the island of Tenerife
, back to Salem, then on to Madras
and Tranquebar, India, before returning to the Massachusetts port loaded with her bounty. The following year, Pickman kept the journal of the voyage of the ship Anna, captained by Benjamin Swett, which sailed from Boston to Sumatra
and back in 1801.
Pickman made his early career out of repeated trips on the Belisarius. Before the ship went to pieces in a gale in the Bay of Tunis
in April 1810, the 94 feet (28.7 m) clipper made repeated voyages to India and Sumatra with several captains in command and Pickman acting as supercargo. The clipper ship's voyages prompted Salem cleric Dr. William Bentley
to call her "one of the richest ships of our port." (Capt. Samuel Skerry, the most renowned of the Belisariuss captains, died at age 36 after being kicked in the head by a horse.)
, Zanzibar
, Madagascar
, Sumatra
, Java
, the Philippines
, Malaya
and other far-flung trading ports.
Initially a partner of the Salem trading firm of Stone, Silsbees, Pickman & Allen, Pickman later became one of two partners of the firm of Silsbee & Pickman, one of the largest Salem trading houses, operated by Nathaniel Silsbee
and Pickman. Pickman made much of his early fortune from trade with India. He later helped finance some Indian factories
as an owner. His firm was so influential that was known in Salem as "The Old East-India Company."
As Pickman's business investments took off, he became an active financier, and owned interests in emerging industries across New England
. He was a founding investor in the companies that developed the water power and owned much of the real estate in Lowell
, Manchester
and Lawrence
. He was also a large stockholder in many cotton and woolen mills in Massachusetts and New Hampshire
, and was a large investor in many early railroad companies.
Pickman was an active merchant, writing to politicians such as Henry Clay
to promote his mercantile interests and arguing for the need for protective tariffs. Pickman also frequently corresponded with other powerful merchants and statesmen such as Paine Wingate
and Samuel Curwen.
Pickman was heavily involved in nearly all aspects of Salem's municipal and business life. He served with Leverett Saltonstall
and Nathaniel Bowditch
as trustees of the estate of Simon Forrester. A ship captain born in Ireland, Forrester had become one of the pioneers of Salem merchant shipping and became one of Salem's leading merchants and philanthropists.
The large brick mansion built for Pickman by architect Jabez Smith in 1819 at the corner of Chestnut and Pickering Streets in Salem was later known as the Shreve-Little House (and later still as the Baldwin-Lyman House). Pickman married on September 6, 1810, Catherine Saunders, daughter of Salem merchant Thomas Saunders and his wife Elizabeth (Elkins) Saunders.
Dudley Leavitt Pickman was a longtime member of Salem's old North Church. His portrait is owned by the Peabody Essex Museum
, where it forms part of a collection of the founders of Salem's East India Marine Society in 1799. In the Massachusetts Historical Society
is a copy of William Shakespeare
's Twelfth Night from the library of Dudley Pickman Leavitt – a copy of the first publication in America of the English
playwright's work.
.
Dudley Leavitt Pickman's daughter Elizabeth became the second wife of Salem merchant Richard Saltonstall Rogers, whose first wife Sarah Crowninshield
died young. Pickman's daughter Catherine Saunders married Boston merchant Richard S. Fay. One of Pickman's sons, Edward Motley, attended Harvard Law School
, and became a Boston writer.
His son Dudley Leavitt Pickman Jr. attended Noble and Greenough School
, Harvard College, where he was president of the Hasty Pudding Club
, and Harvard Law School
, practiced law in Boston and lived in a 40-room granite mansion, staffed by five servants and designed by architect Stanford White
at 191 Commonwealth Avenue
in Boston
, as well as in Beverly, Massachusetts
. He served as a director for a number of public companies, including a subsidiary of Calumet and Hecla Mining Company
and as one of the first three trustees of the Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
House National Park site in Cambridge, Massachusetts
.
Dudley Leavitt Pickman Jr. continued the family's tradition of making gifts of significant family heirlooms and antiques to the collection of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, including a teapot by silversmith John Coburn bearing the Pickman family coat of arms
. Born in Geneva, Switzerland
, in 1885, Dudley Leavitt Pickman Jr. also became a noted mountaineer and porcelain expert, who published several books on the subject. Along with his friends Harold Stirling Vanderbilt
, Francis Bacon and Frederic Allen, Pickman played the first game of contract bridge
in its modern form. He married the widow of Boston businessman Alexander Lynde Cochrane.
In its obituary of Dudley Leavitt Pickman Jr., The New York Times noted the lawyer and author's service as trustee of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, as well as his avocation as "a noted mountain climber". Pickman, who died at his residence at 38 Beacon Street on Beacon Hill
, was 87.
The Pickman family intermarried with other prominent early Salem and Boston families, including that of Joseph Story Fay, the Crowninshields
, the Pickerings
, the Rodmans, the Silsbees, Rogers, Saunders and Motleys and others.
The family also later owned an estate located near Two Brothers Rocks in Bedford, Massachusetts
, so named because the lands were patented by both Massachusetts Bay Colony
governors John Winthrop
and Thomas Dudley
. Dudley Leavitt Pickman and his progeny were descended from both early governors.
The Salem merchant Dudley Leavitt Pickman is buried at Salem's Harmony Grove Cemetery
, not far from the grave of his partner, merchant and United States Senator from Massachusetts
Nathaniel Silsbee
. Pickman's tombstone reads: "A successful merchant, distinguished for his sound practical good sense and an inflexible regard to truth and justice."
Salem, Massachusetts
Salem is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 40,407 at the 2000 census. It and Lawrence are the county seats of Essex County...
, merchant who built one of the great Salem trading firms during the seaport's ascendancy as a trading power in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Pickman was a partner in the firm Devereux, Pickman & Silsbee and a state senator. Among the wealthiest Salem merchants of his day, Pickman used his own clipper ships
Clipper
A clipper was a very fast sailing ship of the 19th century that had three or more masts and a square rig. They were generally narrow for their length, could carry limited bulk freight, small by later 19th century standards, and had a large total sail area...
to trade with the Far East
Far East
The Far East is an English term mostly describing East Asia and Southeast Asia, with South Asia sometimes also included for economic and cultural reasons.The term came into use in European geopolitical discourse in the 19th century,...
in an array of goods ranging from indigo and coffee to pepper and spices, and was one of the state's earliest financiers, backing everything from cotton and woolen mills to railroads to water-generated power plants. Pickman also helped found what is today's Peabody Essex Museum
Peabody Essex Museum
The Peabody Essex Museum , originally the Peabody Museum of Salem and the Essex Institute, in Salem, Massachusetts is the oldest continuously operating museum in the United States, and holds one of the major collections of Asian art in the US; its total holdings include about 1.3 million pieces, as...
.
Early life and career
Dudley Leavitt Pickman was born at Salem, Massachusetts, in May 1779, the second son of Salem's chief Naval Officer, William Pickman (1779–1815) and his wife Elizabeth (Leavitt) Pickman, daughter of Dudley LeavittDudley Leavitt (minister)
Rev. Dudley Leavitt was a Congregational minister born in New Hampshire, educated at Harvard College, who led a splinter group from the First Church in Salem, Massachusetts, during a wave of religious ferment nearly a decade before the Great Awakening. Following Leavitt's death at age 42, his...
, an early Congregational minister in Salem, and his wife Mary (Pickering) Leavitt, sister of United States Secretary of State
United States Secretary of State
The United States Secretary of State is the head of the United States Department of State, concerned with foreign affairs. The Secretary is a member of the Cabinet and the highest-ranking cabinet secretary both in line of succession and order of precedence...
Timothy Pickering
Timothy Pickering
Timothy Pickering was a politician from Massachusetts who served in a variety of roles, most notably as the third United States Secretary of State, serving in that office from 1795 to 1800 under Presidents George Washington and John Adams.-Early years:Pickering was born in Salem, Massachusetts to...
. William Pickman secured his son a position in 1799 as a clerk for Chief Customs Collector
United States Customs Service
Until March 2003, the United States Customs Service was an agency of the U.S. federal government that collected import tariffs and performed other selected border security duties.Before it was rolled into form part of the U.S...
Major Joseph Hiller. After working briefly for Hiller, Dudley Leavitt Pickman left the Customs Service in 1799 to go to sea as a ship's supercargo
Supercargo
Supercargo is a term in maritime law that refers to a person employed on board a vessel by the owner of cargo carried on the ship...
– business agent for the owner.
Pickman embarked on a merchant's career as a young man. He helped found the East-India Marine Society (today's Peabody Essex Museum
Peabody Essex Museum
The Peabody Essex Museum , originally the Peabody Museum of Salem and the Essex Institute, in Salem, Massachusetts is the oldest continuously operating museum in the United States, and holds one of the major collections of Asian art in the US; its total holdings include about 1.3 million pieces, as...
) of Salem in November 1800. (Joining two months prior was the eminent Salem merchant Elias Hasket Derby
Elias Hasket Derby
Elias Hasket Derby was among the wealthiest and most celebrated of post-Revolutionary merchants in Salem, Massachusetts, and owner of the Grand Turk, the first New England vessel to trade directly with China....
as well as Nathaniel Bowditch
Nathaniel Bowditch
Nathaniel Bowditch was an early American mathematician remembered for his work on ocean navigation. He is often credited as the founder of modern maritime navigation; his book The New American Practical Navigator, first published in 1802, is still carried on board every commissioned U.S...
). In 1804 the East-India Marine Society moved to the Pickman Building on Essex Street, which had been specially fitted for the society.
Early in his career, Pickman traveled to India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
as supercargo on a ship belonging to several Salem merchants. In his diary of the journey, Journal of the Belisarius, Pickman noted the appearance of the British fort at Calcutta
Kolkata
Kolkata , formerly known as Calcutta, is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located on the east bank of the Hooghly River, it was the commercial capital of East India...
: "Fort St. George is a handsome brick fortification. It appears very strong, but is probably too much extended to make as able a defense as might otherwise be done."
Pickman kept journals on several of his other voyages as supercargo and then owner, and as its charter required, these journals were filed with the East-India Marine Society of Salem. These early documents show the vast reach of the large Salem trading houses. In 1799–1800, for instance, Pickman noted that the Belisarius had traveled first to the island of Tenerife
Tenerife
Tenerife is the largest and most populous island of the seven Canary Islands, it is also the most populated island of Spain, with a land area of 2,034.38 km² and 906,854 inhabitants, 43% of the total population of the Canary Islands. About five million tourists visit Tenerife each year, the...
, back to Salem, then on to Madras
Chennai
Chennai , formerly known as Madras or Madarasapatinam , is the capital city of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, located on the Coromandel Coast off the Bay of Bengal. Chennai is the fourth most populous metropolitan area and the sixth most populous city in India...
and Tranquebar, India, before returning to the Massachusetts port loaded with her bounty. The following year, Pickman kept the journal of the voyage of the ship Anna, captained by Benjamin Swett, which sailed from Boston to Sumatra
Sumatra
Sumatra is an island in western Indonesia, westernmost of the Sunda Islands. It is the largest island entirely in Indonesia , and the sixth largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 with a population of 50,365,538...
and back in 1801.
Pickman made his early career out of repeated trips on the Belisarius. Before the ship went to pieces in a gale in the Bay of Tunis
Tunis
Tunis is the capital of both the Tunisian Republic and the Tunis Governorate. It is Tunisia's largest city, with a population of 728,453 as of 2004; the greater metropolitan area holds some 2,412,500 inhabitants....
in April 1810, the 94 feet (28.7 m) clipper made repeated voyages to India and Sumatra with several captains in command and Pickman acting as supercargo. The clipper ship's voyages prompted Salem cleric Dr. William Bentley
William Bentley
William Bentley was an American Unitarian minister, scholar, columnist, and diarist....
to call her "one of the richest ships of our port." (Capt. Samuel Skerry, the most renowned of the Belisariuss captains, died at age 36 after being kicked in the head by a horse.)
Later career
Pickman soon founded his own trading firm. He and his partners owned an array of clipper ships including the brig Endeavor, the Malay, the Borneo, the Belisarius, the Herald, the Coromandel, the Persia, the Friendship and others. The ships traded with IndiaIndia
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, Zanzibar
Zanzibar
Zanzibar ,Persian: زنگبار, from suffix bār: "coast" and Zangi: "bruin" ; is a semi-autonomous part of Tanzania, in East Africa. It comprises the Zanzibar Archipelago in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of the mainland, and consists of numerous small islands and two large ones: Unguja , and Pemba...
, Madagascar
Madagascar
The Republic of Madagascar is an island country located in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa...
, Sumatra
Sumatra
Sumatra is an island in western Indonesia, westernmost of the Sunda Islands. It is the largest island entirely in Indonesia , and the sixth largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 with a population of 50,365,538...
, Java
Java
Java is an island of Indonesia. With a population of 135 million , it is the world's most populous island, and one of the most densely populated regions in the world. It is home to 60% of Indonesia's population. The Indonesian capital city, Jakarta, is in west Java...
, the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
, Malaya
British Malaya
British Malaya loosely described a set of states on the Malay Peninsula and the Island of Singapore that were brought under British control between the 18th and the 20th centuries...
and other far-flung trading ports.
Initially a partner of the Salem trading firm of Stone, Silsbees, Pickman & Allen, Pickman later became one of two partners of the firm of Silsbee & Pickman, one of the largest Salem trading houses, operated by Nathaniel Silsbee
Nathaniel Silsbee
Nathanial Silsbee was an American politician from Massachusetts.Silsbee was born in Salem, Massachusetts to Capt. Nathanial Silsbee and Sarah Beckett...
and Pickman. Pickman made much of his early fortune from trade with India. He later helped finance some Indian factories
Factory
A factory or manufacturing plant is an industrial building where laborers manufacture goods or supervise machines processing one product into another. Most modern factories have large warehouses or warehouse-like facilities that contain heavy equipment used for assembly line production...
as an owner. His firm was so influential that was known in Salem as "The Old East-India Company."
As Pickman's business investments took off, he became an active financier, and owned interests in emerging industries across New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
. He was a founding investor in the companies that developed the water power and owned much of the real estate in Lowell
Lowell, Massachusetts
Lowell is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, USA. According to the 2010 census, the city's population was 106,519. It is the fourth largest city in the state. Lowell and Cambridge are the county seats of Middlesex County...
, Manchester
Manchester, New Hampshire
Manchester is the largest city in the U.S. state of New Hampshire, the tenth largest city in New England, and the largest city in northern New England, an area comprising the states of Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. It is in Hillsborough County along the banks of the Merrimack River, which...
and Lawrence
Lawrence, Massachusetts
Lawrence is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States on the Merrimack River. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a total population of 76,377. Surrounding communities include Methuen to the north, Andover to the southwest, and North Andover to the southeast. It and Salem are...
. He was also a large stockholder in many cotton and woolen mills in Massachusetts and New Hampshire
New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian...
, and was a large investor in many early railroad companies.
Pickman was an active merchant, writing to politicians such as Henry Clay
Henry Clay
Henry Clay, Sr. , was a lawyer, politician and skilled orator who represented Kentucky separately in both the Senate and in the House of Representatives...
to promote his mercantile interests and arguing for the need for protective tariffs. Pickman also frequently corresponded with other powerful merchants and statesmen such as Paine Wingate
Paine Wingate
Paine Wingate was an American preacher, farmer, and statesman from Stratham, New Hampshire. He served New Hampshire in the Continental Congress and both the United States Senate and House of Representatives....
and Samuel Curwen.
Pickman was heavily involved in nearly all aspects of Salem's municipal and business life. He served with Leverett Saltonstall
Leverett Saltonstall I
Leverett Saltonstall , was a member of the United States House of Representatives from Massachusetts who also served as Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, President of the Massachusetts Senate, the first Mayor of Salem, Massachusetts and a Member of the Board of Overseers of...
and Nathaniel Bowditch
Nathaniel Bowditch
Nathaniel Bowditch was an early American mathematician remembered for his work on ocean navigation. He is often credited as the founder of modern maritime navigation; his book The New American Practical Navigator, first published in 1802, is still carried on board every commissioned U.S...
as trustees of the estate of Simon Forrester. A ship captain born in Ireland, Forrester had become one of the pioneers of Salem merchant shipping and became one of Salem's leading merchants and philanthropists.
The large brick mansion built for Pickman by architect Jabez Smith in 1819 at the corner of Chestnut and Pickering Streets in Salem was later known as the Shreve-Little House (and later still as the Baldwin-Lyman House). Pickman married on September 6, 1810, Catherine Saunders, daughter of Salem merchant Thomas Saunders and his wife Elizabeth (Elkins) Saunders.
Dudley Leavitt Pickman was a longtime member of Salem's old North Church. His portrait is owned by the Peabody Essex Museum
Peabody Essex Museum
The Peabody Essex Museum , originally the Peabody Museum of Salem and the Essex Institute, in Salem, Massachusetts is the oldest continuously operating museum in the United States, and holds one of the major collections of Asian art in the US; its total holdings include about 1.3 million pieces, as...
, where it forms part of a collection of the founders of Salem's East India Marine Society in 1799. In the Massachusetts Historical Society
Massachusetts Historical Society
The Massachusetts Historical Society is a major historical archive specializing in early American, Massachusetts, and New England history...
is a copy of William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
's Twelfth Night from the library of Dudley Pickman Leavitt – a copy of the first publication in America of the English
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
playwright's work.
Descendants and legacy
Dudley Leavitt Pickman's son William Dudley Pickman continued the family trading enterprises, eventually moving the shipping interests to Boston but retaining a counting house in Salem. William Dudley Pickman married Caroline Silsbee, daughter of Salem merchant Zachariah F. Silsbee. William Dudley Pickman's partner in the Boston-based firm was his son Dudley Leavitt Pickman, who became a fixture in Boston business and social circles, and a large donor of family art and antiques to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, as well as a trustee of Salem's Peabody MuseumPeabody Museum
The Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale University is among the oldest, largest, and most prolific university natural history museums in the world. It was founded by the philanthropist George Peabody in 1866 at the behest of his nephew Othniel Charles Marsh, the early paleontologist...
.
Dudley Leavitt Pickman's daughter Elizabeth became the second wife of Salem merchant Richard Saltonstall Rogers, whose first wife Sarah Crowninshield
Jacob Crowninshield
Jacob Crowninshield was a U.S. Representative from Massachusetts and appointee to the position of U.S. Secretary of the Navy, which he never filled. His brother Benjamin Williams Crowninshield did successfully hold the post; the Crowninshield family in general was prominent in early American...
died young. Pickman's daughter Catherine Saunders married Boston merchant Richard S. Fay. One of Pickman's sons, Edward Motley, attended Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it is the oldest continually-operating law school in the United States and is home to the largest academic law library in the world. The school is routinely ranked by the U.S...
, and became a Boston writer.
His son Dudley Leavitt Pickman Jr. attended Noble and Greenough School
Noble and Greenough School
The Noble and Greenough School, commonly known as Nobles, is a coeducational, nonsectarian day and boarding school for students in grades seven through twelve. It is located on a campus in Dedham, Massachusetts. The current enrollment of 550 students includes a balance of boys and girls, of whom...
, Harvard College, where he was president of the Hasty Pudding Club
Hasty Pudding Club
The Hasty Pudding Club is a social club for Harvard students. It was founded by Nymphus Hatch, a junior at Harvard College, in 1770. The club is named for the traditional American dish that the founding members ate at their first meeting...
, and Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it is the oldest continually-operating law school in the United States and is home to the largest academic law library in the world. The school is routinely ranked by the U.S...
, practiced law in Boston and lived in a 40-room granite mansion, staffed by five servants and designed by architect Stanford White
Stanford White
Stanford White was an American architect and partner in the architectural firm of McKim, Mead & White, the frontrunner among Beaux-Arts firms. He designed a long series of houses for the rich and the very rich, and various public, institutional, and religious buildings, some of which can be found...
at 191 Commonwealth Avenue
Commonwealth Avenue
Commonwealth Avenue is an avenue which may refer to:in Australia*Commonwealth Avenue, Canberrain the Philippines*Commonwealth Avenue, Quezon Cityin Singapore*Commonwealth Avenue, Singaporein the United States...
in Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
, as well as in Beverly, Massachusetts
Beverly, Massachusetts
Beverly is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 39,343 on , which differs by no more than several hundred from the 39,862 obtained in the 2000 census. A resort, residential and manufacturing community on the North Shore, Beverly includes Beverly Farms and Prides...
. He served as a director for a number of public companies, including a subsidiary of Calumet and Hecla Mining Company
Calumet and Hecla Mining Company
The Calumet and Hecla Mining Company was a major copper-mining company based in the Michigan Copper Country. In the 19th century, the company paid out more than $72 million in shareholder dividends, more than any other mining company in the United States during that period.-History:In 1864, Edwin J...
and as one of the first three trustees of the Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was an American poet and educator whose works include "Paul Revere's Ride", The Song of Hiawatha, and Evangeline...
House National Park site in Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...
.
Dudley Leavitt Pickman Jr. continued the family's tradition of making gifts of significant family heirlooms and antiques to the collection of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, including a teapot by silversmith John Coburn bearing the Pickman family coat of arms
Coat of arms
A coat of arms is a unique heraldic design on a shield or escutcheon or on a surcoat or tabard used to cover and protect armour and to identify the wearer. Thus the term is often stated as "coat-armour", because it was anciently displayed on the front of a coat of cloth...
. Born in Geneva, Switzerland
Geneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
, in 1885, Dudley Leavitt Pickman Jr. also became a noted mountaineer and porcelain expert, who published several books on the subject. Along with his friends Harold Stirling Vanderbilt
Harold Stirling Vanderbilt
Harold Stirling Vanderbilt was an American railroad executive, a champion yachtsman, a champion bridge player and a member of the Vanderbilt family.-Background:...
, Francis Bacon and Frederic Allen, Pickman played the first game of contract bridge
Contract bridge
Contract bridge, usually known simply as bridge, is a trick-taking card game using a standard deck of 52 playing cards played by four players in two competing partnerships with partners sitting opposite each other around a small table...
in its modern form. He married the widow of Boston businessman Alexander Lynde Cochrane.
In its obituary of Dudley Leavitt Pickman Jr., The New York Times noted the lawyer and author's service as trustee of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, as well as his avocation as "a noted mountain climber". Pickman, who died at his residence at 38 Beacon Street on Beacon Hill
Beacon Hill, Boston, Massachusetts
Beacon Hill is a historic neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, that along with the neighboring Back Bay is home to about 26,000 people. It is a neighborhood of Federal-style rowhouses and is known for its narrow, gas-lit streets and brick sidewalks...
, was 87.
The Pickman family intermarried with other prominent early Salem and Boston families, including that of Joseph Story Fay, the Crowninshields
Crowninshield family
The Crowninshield family is an American family that has been prominent in seafaring, political and military leadership, and the literary world. The founder of the American family immigrated in the late 17th century from what is now Germany...
, the Pickerings
Timothy Pickering
Timothy Pickering was a politician from Massachusetts who served in a variety of roles, most notably as the third United States Secretary of State, serving in that office from 1795 to 1800 under Presidents George Washington and John Adams.-Early years:Pickering was born in Salem, Massachusetts to...
, the Rodmans, the Silsbees, Rogers, Saunders and Motleys and others.
The family also later owned an estate located near Two Brothers Rocks in Bedford, Massachusetts
Bedford, Massachusetts
Bedford is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is within the Greater Boston area, north-west of the city of Boston. The population of Bedford was 13,320 at the 2010 census.- History :...
, so named because the lands were patented by both Massachusetts Bay Colony
Massachusetts Bay Colony
The Massachusetts Bay Colony was an English settlement on the east coast of North America in the 17th century, in New England, situated around the present-day cities of Salem and Boston. The territory administered by the colony included much of present-day central New England, including portions...
governors John Winthrop
John Winthrop
John Winthrop was a wealthy English Puritan lawyer, and one of the leading figures in the founding of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the first major settlement in New England after Plymouth Colony. Winthrop led the first large wave of migrants from England in 1630, and served as governor for 12 of...
and Thomas Dudley
Thomas Dudley
Thomas Dudley was a colonial magistrate who served several terms as governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Dudley was the chief founder of Newtowne, later Cambridge, Massachusetts, and built the town's first home...
. Dudley Leavitt Pickman and his progeny were descended from both early governors.
The Salem merchant Dudley Leavitt Pickman is buried at Salem's Harmony Grove Cemetery
Harmony Grove Cemetery
Harmony Grove Cemetery is a cemetery in Salem, Massachusetts. It was established in 1840 and is located at 30 Grove Street.The cemetery includes the Gothic revival Blake Memorial Chapel of 1905.-Notable burials:...
, not far from the grave of his partner, merchant and United States Senator from Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
Nathaniel Silsbee
Nathaniel Silsbee
Nathanial Silsbee was an American politician from Massachusetts.Silsbee was born in Salem, Massachusetts to Capt. Nathanial Silsbee and Sarah Beckett...
. Pickman's tombstone reads: "A successful merchant, distinguished for his sound practical good sense and an inflexible regard to truth and justice."
External links
- Dudley Leavitt Pickman Papers, Phillips Library, Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts
- Portrait of Dudley Leavitt Pickman, Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts
- Portrait of Dudley Leavitt Pickman, History of Essex County, Massachusetts, Duane Hamilton Hurd
- Grave of Elizabeth Leavitt Pickman, mother of Dudley Leavitt Pickman, Broad Street Cemetery, Salem, Massachusetts, gravematter.smugmug.com
Further reading
- Yankee India: American Commercial and Cultural Encounters with India in the Age of Sail, 1784-1860, Susan S. Bean, Peabody Essex Museum, 2001, ISBN 8185822832, 9788185822839
- Pickled Fish and Salted Provisions, Historical Musings from Salem Maritime National Historic Site, National Park Service
See also
- Dudley Leavitt (minister)Dudley Leavitt (minister)Rev. Dudley Leavitt was a Congregational minister born in New Hampshire, educated at Harvard College, who led a splinter group from the First Church in Salem, Massachusetts, during a wave of religious ferment nearly a decade before the Great Awakening. Following Leavitt's death at age 42, his...
, Dudley PoundDudley PoundAdmiral of the Fleet Sir Alfred Dudley Pickman Rogers Pound GCB OM GCVO RN was a British naval officer who served as First Sea Lord, professional head of the Royal Navy from June 1939 to September 1943.- Early life :...
, Timothy PickeringTimothy PickeringTimothy Pickering was a politician from Massachusetts who served in a variety of roles, most notably as the third United States Secretary of State, serving in that office from 1795 to 1800 under Presidents George Washington and John Adams.-Early years:Pickering was born in Salem, Massachusetts to...
, Moses LeavittMoses LeavittMoses Leavitt was an early settler of Exeter, New Hampshire, where he worked as a surveyor. Later he became a large landowner, and served as selectman, and as a Deputy and later Moderator of the New Hampshire General Court from Exeter...
, Benjamin Pickman, Jr.Benjamin Pickman, Jr.Benjamin Pickman, Jr. was a U.S. Representative from Massachusetts.Pickman was born in Salem, Massachusetts, a descendant of Benjamin Pickman, an Englishman from Bristol. Benjamin Pickman, Jr. graduated from Harvard University in 1784 after having attended Dummer Academy...