CWA

Ames Family Historical Collection – Series 8 Charles Wilberforce Ames, 1855-1921 By Edwin L. Wolff, April 2006  A Minneapolis Tribune obituary written on the death of Charles W. Ames said, “No man in the city gave himself more unselfishly, more generously, more usefully to the betterment of the community than he....  Thousands were beneficiaries of his participation and leadership...  And then there was the charm and grace of manner, the gentlemanly courtesy...”     Despite what might be considered a difficult childhood, he was born to happiness, success and a natural ability to bring happiness to others.  His exuberance, wit, sense of fun, his great store of energy, and his ability to make nearly instant contact with anyone he met--these were lifelong traits.  They led him through the death of his mother when he was six, constant moving from city to city with his minister father, and being sent to high school in Minnesota while his father and stepmother were organizing new Unitarian congregations in pioneer California.  He had a brilliant college career at Cornell, ending in winning a prestigious oratorical prize.     After four years working in a printing establishment in Boston, Ames had the good fortune to learn from an old childhood friend, Sam Hill, that he might get a position with a new law-book firm, the West Publishing Company, in St. Paul, Minnesota.  Beginning in 1883, he worked for “West Pub” for the rest of his life; by 1900, he was de facto leader of the firm; a few years later he became president pro forma as well.  West Pub became the world’s largest law-book publisher.       In 1884, he married Mary Lesley, daughter of J. Peter and Susan Lyman Lesley, in Phi1adelphia.  His parents and hers were close friends.  They had known each other for several years, during which Charles had become engaged, and then dis-engaged, to another young woman. His proposal to Mary, then 29, came as a great surprise.  But their 37-year marriage was all sunshine.     In the Twin Cities, Ames was instrumental in a number of civic enterprises, among them:  The St. Paul Institute, founded to provide after-work education for St. Paul’s many immigrant artisans and craftsmen (it later evolved into the very popular Science Museum of Minnesota); the founding of two college preparatory schools, the St. Paul Academy (for boys) and the Summit School (for girls); and many roles in the development of Unity Church (there is now an Ames Chapel and an Ames Memorial Window there) and in the national American Unitarian Association.  He and his wife Mary hosted countless meetings at their home on Grand Avenue to discuss and move forward on various civic projects.     Shortly after World War I began, Ames threw himself into raising money and supplies for the French government.   He eased the way for the goods to be shipped to France by negotiating with a French steamship line to transport them free of charge.   His wife, Mary, organized volunteer women to roll bandages and assemble other supplies to be shipped across the Atlantic. In 1916, the year before the U.S. entered the war, he traveled to France to ensure that the goods were reaching their proper destination.  The Ameses worked for other aid efforts as well, including the Fatherless Children of France, the American Memorial Hospital in France, and the Association for Fellowships in French Universities.  In 1919, he was awarded the French Legion of Honor.     His work as President of “West Pub” involved many trips around the country.  In addition, he joyfully became a partner in a working ranch near Cheyenne, Wyoming, and made many trips there.  Everywhere he went, on trains, in hotels, and elsewhere, he wrote fond, amusing letters to his wife and children.  Some quotes appear on the next page.  They show that the roles in life he enjoyed most were as husband and father (two sons and four daughters).     Ames died in 1921.  He had not been feeling well for several months, but ceased his constant activity only a few weeks before his death. Quotations by and about Charles W. Ames     From recollections of his daughter Margaret: “Wherever he went, he made friends.... The servants in hotels or pensions, the chauffeurs and cabbies and gondoliers....  He was always buying little presents for their children and sending message to them later....”     Ames, writing from France during World War I, “The years 1914, 1915, 1916 will stand  out  for centuries as the highest peak in the mountain range of human history.... I esteem it one of the great privileges of my life to come into slight contact with the heroic French people in this hour of their tragic exaltation....”     Ames, closing a letter to his son, Lesley, then age 4:  “Now good night, my dear boy. Papa loves you all, his three children, more than tongue can tell.  Write to me again soon.”     Ames, writing to daughter Alice, then age 5:  “Please see if you can remember that you have a Papa.   He  is very, very far away from you now, on a giant ship and among strangers.... Every night before he goes to bed, he looks at your pictures that Mamma sent him, and he thinks  of you and how you look and what you are doing, and remembers how you say your little prayer, and he says it with you, far far away....”     Ames, writing from Holland to daughter Margaret, then age 10:  “...when I think of you all, I get impatient to go home right away.  For do you know, I haven’t see any children in all Holland that I wanted to exchange mine for....   But I shall be here for several days more, and I will keep  looking.  Meanwhile, I am still your loving Papa.”     His daughter, Alice Ames Crothers, recalling when she was a little girl;  “I well remember my  joy at being held prisoner in his arms and creeping out when he closed his eyes.  Again, his surprise was the grand climax.  No wonder every little child, however timidly, went to him instantly.”     From his letters to his wife Mary in the early years of marriage:         -- “I suppose I shall continue to suffer from a mixture of affectionate interest and homesick jealousy every time I hear a baby cry.  Your favorite husband, Charles.”         --  ...”I have no letter to mail you this morning, and can only mail you this bare assurance that I am, yours and the rest of ’em’s Loving Charles.  ’Specially yours.”         -- “Last night, for the first time since I left, I dreamed copiously and agreeably of  you and the children.  And when in a wakeful interval, I gloated over the fact, I said to myself, ‘This is request night,  isn’t it?’ and hastened back to sleep to enjoy more of it.”             -- “Dear Madam....haven’t had time to read your  letter which came two hours ago, except to peek at the end to see if you still loved me.”     Skipping forward to 1917 (after 33 years of marriage):         -- “Hope you will not have wearying journey homeward, but come anyhow to C. W. Ames.”           -- “Meet me by moonlight tomorrow evening, not necessarily alone.”         -- “I think of you occasionally and you’ll remember me.  Try.  Your Husband by Marriage.”           -- “There is a difference between things temporal and thing eternal.  And surely love is eternal.  Ours will last as long as we do....  Charles.”   END

 

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