| Endicott Peabody | |
|---|---|
| Born | May 30, 1857 Salem, Massachusetts |
| Died | November 17, 1944 (aged 87) |
| Other names | Cotty |
| Education | Cheltenham College |
| Spouse | Fannie Peabody |
| Church | Episcopal Church in the United States of America |
| Ordained | 1884 |
| Congregations served | Tombstone, Arizona |
| Offices held | Headmaster, Groton School |
The Reverend Endicott Peabody (May 30, 1857 – November 17, 1944)[1] was the American Episcopal priest who founded the Groton School for Boys (known today simply as Groton School), in Groton, Massachusetts in 1884. Peabody served as headmaster at the school from 1884 until 1940, and also served as a trustee at Lawrence Academy at Groton. In 1926 Peabody also founded Brooks School, which was named for 19th-century clergyman Phillips Brooks, a well-known preacher and resident of North Andover, Massachusetts. Peabody was headmaster for Franklin Delano Roosevelt at Groton, and he officiated at Franklin's marriage to Eleanor Roosevelt.[2]
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Endicott Peabody was the son of Samuel Endicott Peabody and Marianne Cabot Lee. He was born in Salem, Massachusetts.
His father, Samuel Endicott Peabody, was a Boston merchant and a partner in the London banking firm of J. S. Morgan and Company (later known as J.P. Morgan & Company). When Endicott Peabody was 13, the family moved to England. He prepared for university at Cheltenham College,[1] a secondary school in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, finishing in 1876 at the age of 19. He was graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1880 with an LL.B. degree.[1] He married his first cousin, Fannie Peabody, daughter of Francis and Helen (Bloodgood) Peabody of Salem, Massachusetts on June 18, 1885 in Salem. His father Samuel and her father Francis were brothers. They had six children.
His great-grandfather was Salem shipowner and privateer Joseph Peabody who made a fortune importing pepper from Sumatra as well as opium from East-Asia. Joseph Peabody was one of the wealthiest men in the United States at the time of his death in 1844.[3] Another of his ancestors was Massachusetts Bay Colony Governor John Endecott, who ordered the hanging of non-conformist Quakers, but who none-the-less was a friend of Roger Williams.
In 1882 during his first year at the Episcopal Theological School in Cambridge, Massachusetts (now the Episcopal Divinity School) Peabody, a seminarian not yet a priest, was invited to take charge of a little Episcopal congregation in Tombstone, Arizona (now St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Tombstone).[1] After a long seven-day train ride from Boston, he arrived in Benson, Arizona and took the Sandy Bob stagecoach to Tombstone, arriving on January 29, 1882, three months after the "Gunfight at the O.K. Corral". He had words of praise for Wyatt Earp.
The last church had burned down six months previously, and no attempt had been made to replace it. Peabody held his first services in the Miner’s Exchange Building on February 5, 1882.[1] Though he spent no more than six months in Tombstone he succeeded in getting the church built, St Paul's Episcopal Church.[2] This church building today is the oldest in the state not belonging to the Roman Catholic Church. He was impressive physically, never losing a boxing match. He began a baseball team in Tombstone.[4] He left Tombstone after only six months, and many were saddened that he had to go. George Whitwell Parson noted in his diary that day, “We will not easily fill Peabody’s place.”[2] He returned to the east coast and completed his studies at the Episcopalian Theological School, graduating in the spring of 1884.
Due to the nature of his service during his six months of service in Tombstone, he afterward came to be called the patron saint of the Episcopal Diocese of Arizona.[5]
Franklin Delano Roosevelt said of Peabody, "As long as I live his influence will mean more to me than that of any other people next to my father and mother."[6] His family has been called Boston Brahmins. Governor Endicott Peabody was a grandchild, and his great-grandchildren include author Frances FitzGerald, model Penelope Tree, actress Kyra Sedgwick (wife of Kevin Bacon), and 1960's cultural icon Edie Sedgwick.