The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1877-04-27
Stephen Girard.

They knew somewhat Of him before, but
because they only read of him they did
not feel much interest. He was French
man, and was born in the year 1850, in
Bordeaux. His parents were very poor
and not able to send him to school much,
and his education was very limited. He
could only read and write. He never ac-
quired the English language readily, al
ways blundered in his commonest speech,
and if be became excited he resorted to
his mother tongue entirely.
When he was ten years old he shipped
as q cabin boy on vessel bound to the
East Indies. Afterwards he sailed from
New York in the same humble capacity.
He was q trusty lad, and so faithful to
the interests of his employer that a few
years later the master of the vessel gave
him the command of q small craft, and
the young man Stephen made several
trips to New Orleans and other ports.
He was so successful in all his under
takings and so frugal with his earnings,
that in q little time he was enabled to
become one of the owners of the vessel
that had been entrusted to his manage
ment.
When he was nineteen years of age he
settled in Philadelphia, and before he was
twenty he married servant girl, who was
as pretty as doll. Her name was Polly
Lum, only seventeen years old, the
daughter of poor man who repaired
vessels, caulker by trade. We suppose
Stephen, while waiting to have his craft
tinkered up, cast his eyes upon the pretty
girl-the tinker's daughter-lost his heart,
and married her.
But pretty Polly had better have gone
on cooking dinners, tending babies, doing
chamber work, etc., for the marriage
proved very unhappy one. The young
husbands temper was unmanageable-he
was hard and stern and cold, and exas-
peratine, in his broken French-and- En-
glish, and the final result was divorce
from his wife, who afterwards became
insane, and for the last twenty-five years
of her life was an inmate of lunatic asy-
lum. She died in 1915.
They had no children except one, and
that died in early infancy.
Girard had not long entered the West
India trade until he was recognized as a
rich man.
People who have seen him, concur in
the statement that he was the homeliest
man they ever looked upon. He was
short and thick, and as unshapely as a
butter tub. The swaying, swinging gait
of the old-time sailor was his as long as
he lived. He had one wall-eye, which in
itself was enough to spoil q handsome
face was deaf in one ear, always dressed
very mean end shabby was cold and
stern and vulgar, and his whole exterior,
coupled with his miserable broken Ian
guage, rendered the man q forbidding
object. There was nothing favorable in
his appearance whatever. He talked but
little; he did not like to talk on any sub
iect but business, and then as little as
possible.
His habits were precise, and regular as
clock work. Aside from the business of
money getting he cared for nothing but
his fg trees and shrubbery and grape
vines. He was Catholic in his religious
belief.
At the time of his death, in 1881, his
estate was valued at twelve millions of
dollars, and by his will was all to be de-
voted to educating destitute children, and
to the relief of the poor and distressed.
Az 10 too often the case in important
matters of this kind, prolonged litigation
vas one of the deplorable results.
In bis will, Mr.. Girard gave directions
for constructing Girard College; the size,
form, and the kind of materials to be
used. The building Was commenced in
the summer of 1888, bro not opened un-
oil 16l6.
The form is that of Corinthian tenn
DIE, surrounded by . portico having
shirty-four columns, each six feet In d.
nmsesr, and Afty-6vs feet high, resting
On besis of eleven white marble steps.
The building il ninety seven feet high,
- hundzsd asd slsvsa fsst wide, aad