Henry D. Cogswell

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Henry D. Cogswell, ca. 1850-52
Born (1820-03-03)March 3, 1820
Tolland, Connecticut
Died July 8, 1900(1900-07-08) (aged 80)
Occupation Dentist
Known for Temperance

Dr. Henry Daniel Cogswell (March 3, 1820 – July 8, 1900) was a dentist and a crusader in the temperance movement. He and his wife Caroline also founded Cogswell College in San Francisco, California. Another campus in Everett, Washington was later dedicated in his honor.

Life

Born in Tolland, Connecticut, as a youth, he worked in the New England cotton mills and studied by night. He became a dentist in Providence, Rhode Island at age 26. When the California Gold Rush started, the Cogswells decided to go west. However, they did not do any mining themselves. Instead, he offered dentistry services to miners and invested in real estate and mining stocks, becoming one of San Francisco's first millionaires. A pioneer in his field, Cogswell designed the vacuum method of securing dental plates and was the first in California to perform a dental operation using chloroform.[1]

Philanthropy

Cogswell believed that if people had access to cool drinking water they wouldn't consume alcoholic beverages. It was his dream to construct one temperance fountain for every 100 saloons across the United States and many were built.[2] These drinking fountains were elaborate structures built of granite that Cogswell designed himself.

Cogswell's fountains can be found in Washington, D.C., Tompkins Square Park New York City,[3] Pawtucket, Rhode Island,[4][5] and Rockville, Connecticut.[2][6][7] Other examples were erected and then torn down at: Buffalo, Rochester, Boston Common,[8][9][10] (removed 1900)[11] Fall River, Massachusetts, Pacific Grove, California,[12][13] San Jose, California,[14] and San Francisco.[15] The concept of providing drinking fountains as alternatives to saloons was later implemented by the Women's Christian Temperance Union.

These grandiose statues were not well received by the communities where they were placed.[16] Washington, DC's Temperance Fountain has been called "the city's ugliest statue"[17] and spurred city councils across the country to set up fine arts commissions to screen such gifts.[18]

Destruction of Cogswell's fountain in San Francisco, 1894. San Francisco Call.

Although the D.C. statue survived mostly unscathed, the San Francisco one was torn down by "a lynch party of self-professed art lovers" including Gelett Burgess (who was subsequently fired from his job at University of California at Berkeley)[19] and one in Rockville, Connecticut, was thrown into Shenipsic Lake.[20] In Dubuque, Iowa, a statue of Cogswell that sat in Washington Park was pulled down by a group of vandals in 1900 and buried under the ground of a planned sidewalk. The next day the sidewalk was poured and the object was entombed. However, when new sidewalks were recently laid, the statue was not found.[21]

Cogswell also designed the statue for his own tomb, a 400-ton granite tower, complete with fountains and statues of Hope, Faith, Charity and Temperance. He is buried in Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland, California.[22]

The diaries of Cogswell and his wife Caroline cover 37 years (1860–1897) and are an unusually long and consistent record of busy personal and financial life in the western United States. They are kept at the Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley.

Gallery

External images
Boston, Massachusetts. Boston Common. Cogswell drinking fountain

  • Tompkins Square Park, New York City

  • Temperance Fountain, Washington, D.C.

  • Cogswell's tomb in Oakland

References

  1. ↑ "Historical Overview". Cogswell Polytechnical College. Archived from the original on 2007-06-09. Retrieved 2007-06-10. 
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Foster, Lee (April 6, 2004). "Town Plans to Restore Fountain as Part of Park Project". The Hartford Courant. Retrieved 2007-06-10. 
  3. ↑ "Tompkins Square Park Highlights - Temperance Fountain". New York City Department of Parks & Recreation. Retrieved 2011-08-08. 
  4. ↑ "Cogswell Fountain, (sculpture).". Save Outdoor Sculpture, Rhode Island survey. 1993. Retrieved August 9, 2011. 
  5. ↑ Elizabeth J. Johnson, James L. Wheaton, Susan L. Reed (2003). Pawtucket: Images of America. Arcadia Publishing. p. 103. ISBN 978-0-7385-1287-7. 
  6. ↑ Monica Polanco (August 4, 2005). "Dr. Cogswell Returns To Central Park". The Hartford Courant. 
  7. ↑ Rowe, Jason (May 19, 2006). "Cogswell Fountain restoration earns RDA an award". Journal Inquirer. Retrieved 2011-08-08. 
  8. ↑ "Current News of the Fine Arts". The New York Times. January 14, 1894. 
  9. ↑ Jane Holtz Kay (2006). Lost Boston. University of Massachusetts Press. ISBN 978-1-55849-527-2. 
  10. ↑ American architect and architecture 41. p. 918. 
  11. ↑ Reports of proceedings .... Municipal Printing Office. 1901. 
  12. ↑ Kent Seavey (2005). Pacific Grove. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7385-2964-6. 
  13. ↑ "Pacific Grove: The Chautauqua Years / Birdseye View of Pacific Grove". Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History. September 8, 2005. Retrieved 2011-08-08. 
  14. ↑ Carlson, Eric (June 20, 2005). "Statue of Yore". San Jose Inside. Retrieved 2011-08-08. 
  15. ↑ "Image Breakers: Dr. Cogswell's Stature Overturned Under Shadow of Night By a Silent Gang of Hoodlum Miscreants". San Francisco Call. 3 January 1894. p. 8. 
  16. ↑ "Weeding Out Bad Sculpture". The New York Times. March 13, 1894. 
  17. ↑ "...Toasted Temperance". Washington Post. September 21, 2003. pp. C02. Retrieved 2007-06-10. 
  18. ↑ Rash, Bryson (1983). Footnote Washington. EPM Publications. ISBN 0-914440-62-4. 
  19. ↑ Kitsock, Greg (January 3, 1992). "Fountain of Hooch". Washington City Paper. Retrieved 2009-10-10. 
  20. ↑ Ciparelli, Jessica (November 1, 2005). "Back where he belongs: Dr. Henry Cogswell statue once again graces Rockville’s Central Park". Rockville Reminder. Retrieved 2007-06-10. 
  21. ↑ "Monument Park". Geocaching.org. Retrieved 2007-06-10. 
  22. ↑ Cohn, Abby (January 5, 2001). "They're 6 Feet Under, But Pioneers Draw Crowds to Oakland". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2007-06-10. 

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