The first known freethought financier in the Western world was Julian Hibbert (1801-1834). He was born into a wealthy family in London, and attended Trinity College, Cambridge. There he studied classics. Hibbert began legal studies at Lincoln's Inn, but never practiced law. Hibbert was an atheist who in 1824 began to contribute a number of dialogues to Richard Carlile's Republican magazine. At the time, Carlile was in jail for having published articles deemed blasphemous, and Hibbert often visited him in jail. In those days, some prisoners could have their food sent in to the jail, and could continue (as Carlile did) to write and edit while there. Hibbert bought a printing press for his own use in 1826. He used it to print his Dictionary of Modern Anti- Superstitionists, which only reached the name of "Annet" before it was discontinued (128 pages). Hibbert also published a number of translations from the ancient Greek, in both Greek and English type. He had originally intended to write a history of anti-Christianity. Hibbert was helped in the printing by James Watson, who was later to become an important British freethought publisher. Julian Hibbert gave the press to Watson in 1831, and gave him a large bequest in his will. Hibbert also funded many of Richard Carlile's publications, and Carlile's business itself. Although Hibbert was in ill health for a number of years, it was believed a public denunciation of him in a court of law for his atheist views caused his death in 1834. Stephen Girard (1750-1831) was a wealthy ship owner, born in France. He moved to Philadelphia in 1776, after having spent his early career as a merchant marine. He achieved local fame for saving many lives during the yellow fever epidemic that struck Philadelphia in 1793. His ships included those named "Voltaire," "Rousseau," and "Helvetius." Among the charitable bequests he made was $6 million for a school for orphan boys. This was done in his will, which also specified that,
The provisions of Girard's will were not observed. The "college" soon fell under Christian supervision, and had a chapel. A lawsuit, trying to invalidate the will, went all the way to the United States Supreme Court (Vidal v. Girard's Executors) in 1844. The court ruled that the will was valid because it did not actually aid infidelity or attack Christianity. If it had done either of these, the will would have been invalid, the Court said. D. M. Bennett was the founder of The Truth Seeker His financial angel, at least at the beginning of his freethought career, was a man named Morris Altman. He was the founder of the Altman's department stores, which still exist. Altman came from a Jewish family, and was born in New York City in 1837. Altman served as a trustee of Paine Hall in Boston (the freethinkers' assembly rooms), and his house was frequently used as a meeting place for visiting religious liberals. Altman died suddenly of cholera in 1876, at the age of 39. He had given a good deal of money to D. M. Bennett to assure publication of several of the large volumes that Bennett had written. James Lick (1796-1876) was a wealthy former piano maker, who became a flour miller in California in 1847. He made a great deal of money supplying flour during the gold rush. In 1872 he gave his mill property (in San Jose) to the trustees of the Paine Memorial Hall in Boston. Lick is perhaps better known for his gift of the Lick Observatory. At any rate, the land and mill were sold for $60,000, which was used to fund the building of the Paine Hall, a building that I have elsewhere called the finest freethought building ever constructed. It was four floors high, and housed two lecture halls, a bookstore, offices and the J. P. Mendum publishing company. The hall burned down in 1940. Chronologically, we must mention Robert G. Ingersoll (1833-1899) here. Although Ingersoll was definitely not a "behind the scenes" financier, he did often give money to freethought causes to the extent that one must single him out for special mention. His financial generosity towards freethought was well known to the many publishers of free-thought magazines, who could look to him for a contribution to keep their publications going. Ingersoll never gave large lump sums of money, but he was a reliable repeat giver of smaller sums. A similar role fell to Thaddeus Burr Wakeman (1854-1913), who often served as the lawyer for various free-thought organizations. Edward Bliss Foote (1829-1909) and his son, Edward Bond Foote (1854-1912), were both physicians. They were the authors of a number of home health guide books. In those, they advocated birth control, and got into trouble over it. Anthony Comstock, religion's gift to censorship, had gotten the federal postal laws that bore his name passed. Those laws forbade pornography (defined as Comstock chose to define it), and birth control information and devices from being sent through the mails. Dr. Foote, Sr. was arrested by Comstock and tried for having sent a small birth control pamphlet he had written, called Words In Pearl, through the mail. He was convicted and fined $5,000, but not jailed. The Footes were always willing to contribute to freethought causes. They did so without publicity, so it is difficult for us now to know exactly what they gave and where it went. Of course, the largest sums ever given to freethought were those left by James Hervey Johnson as a part of his estate. The sum has been estimated at $14 million although not all of that was left to freethought causes. The story has been told in these pages before, so I will not repeat it here. There have been a number of fairly large bequests left to a certain atheist organization in Texas, but the details have never been released, and we have no idea how the money was used (if it ever was used for freethought). There was also a man named Leroy Fahnstock, of Florida, who gave quite generously to Joseph Lewis and his Freethinkers of America in the 1960s. The late Corliss Lamont was always generous in his gifts to the American Humanist Association. He tended to stay away from giving to more openly atheistic groups. This list has been shorter than one would have hoped, but the number of wealthy people who have dared to give to help the freethought cause has been quite small. Let's hope that it grows substantially in the future.
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