Ernest Howard Crosby

Ernest Howard Crosby (November 4, 1856 – January 3, 1907) was an American reformer, georgist, and author.[1]

Ernest Howard Crosby
Ernest Howard Crosby in 1904
Born(1856-11-04)November 4, 1856
DiedJanuary 3, 1907(1907-01-03) (aged 50)
Spouse(s)
Frances (Fanny) Kendall Schieffelin
​
​
(m. 1881)​
ChildrenMargaret Eleanor and Maunsell Schieffelin Crosby
Cover of a 1902 New York publication of Captain Jinks, Hero, by Ernest Howard Crosby

Early life

Crosby was born in New York City in 1856. He was the son of the Rev. Dr. Howard Crosby (1826-1891), a Presbyterian minister,[2] and Margaret Evertson Givan, a descendant of the prominent Dutch Evertson family. Crosby was a relative of prolific hymn-writer and rescue mission worker Fanny Crosby.[3]

He was educated at New York University and the Columbia Law School. He was a member of the Delta Phi fraternity during his time at New York University.[4]

Career

While a member of the State Assembly (1887–1889), he introduced three high-license bills, all vetoed by the Governor David Bennett Hill. From 1889 to 1894, he was judge of the Court of the First Instance at Alexandria, Egypt.[4]

He became an exponent of the theories of Count Tolstoy, whom he visited before his return to America; his relations with the great Russian later ripened into intimate friendship, and he devoted himself in America largely to promulgating Tolstoy's ideas of universal peace. His book, Plain Talk in Psalm and Parable (1899), was widely commended by such writers as Björnson, Kropotkin, and Zangwill.

Crosby was a vegetarian and supporter of animal rights,[5] authoring an essay entitled "The Meat Fetish", published in the Humanitarian League's quarterly publication, the Humane Review in 1904;[6] this was later published as a pamphlet. He was also president of the New York Vegetarian Society.[7]

Like the Englishman Edward Carpenter, the subject of his book Poet and Prophet, Crosby's poetry (in the volume Swords and Plowshares) followed the example of Whitman's free verse.[8][1]

Death and Burial

Crosby died of pneumonia in Baltimore, Maryland on January 3, 1907. His remains were transported to New York and he was buried in Rhinebeck, New York, where he maintained an estate.

Personal life

In 1881, Crosby married Frances (Fanny) Kendall Schieffelin,[9] daughter of Henry Maunsell Schieffelin. Their children were Margaret Eleanor and Maunsell Schieffelin Crosby.[10]

Published works

Footnotes
  1. "FOR BETTER TENEMENTS; Work of the Special Commission Meets with Approval. MASS MEETING AT COOPER UNION Trinity Corporation Criticised -- Addresses by Ernest H. Crosby, Richard Watson Gilder, and Others". The New York Times. January 31, 1895. Retrieved 26 September 2017.
  2. Ralph E. Luker, The Social Gospel in Black and White: American Racial Reform, 1885-1912 (UNC Press Books, 1998):242.
  3. "DR. HOWARD CROSBY DEAD; HIS NOBLE STRUGGLE AGAINST PNEUMONIA WAS IN VAIN. HE PASSED AWAY LATE YESTERDAY AFTERNOON, FULLY CONSCIOUS THAT HIS WORK ON EARTH WAS DONE -A LONG LIFE OF WELL-DOING". The New York Times. 30 March 1891. Retrieved 26 September 2017.
  4. "DEATH OF E. H. CROSBY.; Social Reformer Was Stricken with Pneumonia in Baltimore". The New York Times. January 4, 1907. Retrieved 26 September 2017.
  5. Iacobbo & Iacobbo, Vegetarian America: A History, (Praeger, 2004), pp. 143–147.
  6. "The Humane Review". Henry S. Salt Society. Retrieved 2020-06-25.
  7. Edmundson, John (2014-12-08). "Vegan Slaughterhouse Reflections". HappyCow. Retrieved 2020-06-25.
  8. "FOR A CROSBY MEMORIAL; Trustees of the Play-Work Shop Won't Accept Inoome-Bearlng Seourltlee". The New York Times. 4 August 1907. Retrieved 26 September 2017.
  9. Applegate, Edd (2008). Muckrakers: A Biographical Dictionary of Writers and Editors. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press. p. 45. ISBN 978-0-8108-6108-4.
  10. Derby, George and White, James Terry. The National Cyclopædia of American Biography, Volume 10, 1900, page 61

Additional source

Further reading
  • Abbott, Leonard Dalton (1907). Ernest Howard Crosby: A Valuation and a Tribute. Westwood, Mass.: The Ariel Press. OCLC 6697378.
  • Frederick, Peter J. (1976). Knights of the Golden Rule: The Intellectual As Christian Social Reformer in the 1890s. Lexington, KY: University Press Of Kentucky.
  • Gianakos, Perry E. 1972. “Ernest Howard Crosby: A Forgotten Tolstoyan Anti-Militarist and Anti-Imperialist.” American Studies 13 (1): 11–29.
  • Whittaker, R. 1997. "Tolstoy's American Disciple: Letters to Earnest Howard Crosby, 1894-1906". TRIQUARTERLY. (98): 210-250.
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