Today’s Word from Pastor Jim…
Colonel James Anderson, have you heard of him? He is the man who laid the groundwork for a legacy that would touch every state in the Union and many countries throughout the world.
James Anderson was born in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania in 1785. During the War of 1812, he served under William Henry Harrison. Following the war, he became a businessman in the Pittsburgh area. Sometime in the 1850’s the Colonel decided to open his personal library of 400 volumes to the “working boys” of Allegheny, Pennsylvania.
One of those working boys was a 13-year-old Scottish immigrant by the name of Andrew Carnegie. Carnegie was employed as a messenger for the Eastern Telegraph Line making all of $2.50 a week. Andrew Carnegie and several of his friends were among those working boys who regularly checked out books from Anderson’s private library. This act of kindness by Colonel Anderson did not go unnoticed by the young Carnegie. In fact, it changed the perception of a poor young man with little exposure to literature. 57 years later Carnegie, in his autobiography, recalled the impact of Colonel Anderson’s charity saying, “In this way the windows were opened in the walls of my dungeon through which the light of knowledge streamed in.”
Colonel James Anderson would die in 1861 never knowing that his library would change the course of U.S. history. For at the time of his death that working boy, 26-year-old Andrew Carnegie, was on his way to being the richest man in the United States of America. In 1904, Andrew Carnegie dedicated a monument to Colonel James Anderson outside the Carnegie Free Library of Allegheny. The inscription reads as follows:
TO COLONEL JAMES ANDERSON – FOUNDER OF FREE LIBRARIES IN WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA / HE OPENED HIS LIBRARY TO “WORKING BOYS” AND UPON SATURDAY AFTERNOONS ACTED AS LIBRARIAN THUS DEDICATING NOT ONLY HIS BOOKS BUT HIMSELF TO THE NOBLE WORK- THIS MONUMENT IS ERECTED IN GRATEFUL REMEMBRANCE BY ANDREW CARNEGIE ONE OF THE WORKING BOYS TO WHOM WERE THUS OPENED THE PRECIOUS TREASURES OF KNOWLEDGE AND IMAGINATION THROUGH WHICH YOUTH MAY ASCEND.
What better way to repay Colonel Anderson and what better way to pay it forward than to build public libraries. Carnegie did just that, between the years 1883 and 1929 there would be 2,811 Carnegie libraries constructed. Libraries endowed and paid for by the poor Scottish immigrant who arrived in Pittsburgh penniless at the age of 12 in 1848.
We too can leave a legacy. In fact, we have no choice but to leave a legacy of some kind. Our legacy is more likely to resemble Colonel Anderson’s. We are not going to build thousands of libraries. But by acts of kindness, generosity, and philanthropy, and by modeling the Christian faith we can to some degree pay back those who paved the way for our success. We can pay it forward to generations yet to come. We can touch the future by touching the lives of young people, by remembering the TLC endowment in our estate plans. Blessed to be a blessing! May the witness of ancestors inspire us to action.
Now you know the story of Colonel James Anderson.
One beggar, telling another beggar where to find the library, I am your,
Pastor Jim
If you would like to email Pastor Jim direct please send a note to: [email protected]
