Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1912-05-03
DR.. D. x. PEARSONS DEAD.
Aged Phiianthropist Passes Away
at Hinsdale Sanitariunn.

Chicago, April 2S.-Old friends and
which have prospered as the result of
his benefactions will be in charge of
the funeral of DIR. d. K. Pearsons, the
aged philanthropist whose ambition to
live 100 years was thwarted by death
early yesterday morning.
The end came at 2:30 o'clock, after a
long fight which had been considered by
his physicians as hopeless from the
time the first symptoms of pneumonia
appeared He was go years old.
DR.. Daniel X. Pearsons, whom An
drew Carnegie called the "senior part
ner in the association of giving" was
an interesting man judged from any
standpoint. A shrewd, hardheaded
Yankee, always protesting at being
called benevolent or a philanthropist,
yet he gave away every dollar of his
5000, 900 or 100000 fortune. Not
particularly religious, he made relig-
ious societies, educational institutions
and missionary societies the object of
his donations. When he died at the
sanitarium at Hinsdale, ILL.,, which he
had founded, his sole income out of all
the money he had made was 2 per cent.
on the $3.50, 900 he had given to one in
stitution. He gave away the greatest
part of that income.
DIR. Pearsons, for he was a physician,
was born at Bradford, Vt, in 1920, and
he was poor. His first days were spent
on a side hill farm and his education
was got in a little red brick school
house. He had hopes of going through
Dartmouth college, but poverty allowed
him only one year there. During that
one year he lived on potatoes and corn
dodgers he cooked for himself on a
home made sheet iron stove.
When he left college he went to work
and saved This enabled him to go to
the medical school at Woodstock, which
was presided over by DIR. Alonzo Clark,
and in that institution he received his
degree, also 500 as a loan from the
principal. He practiced medicine one
t year in Vermont, which enabled him to
pay the money back, and then he moved
to Chicago. The greatest incident of
t his first year in that little frontier town
A was his meeting with Miss Marietta
? Chaplin, whom he married and to whom
= he gave credit for every one of his
benefactions. Mrs. Pearsons died
= about five years ago. There We're nc
children.
= Ultimately DR.. Pearsons settled al
e Hinsdale, which is near Chicago, but
D his shrewd mind soon saw that there
4 was more money to be made in lane
! speculation and in numbering than ir
= medicine, where the payment was toe
often farm produce or furs. He bought
S and sold land and made money. Later
= he moved back to Chicago and money
y came more rapidly. He made large
sum after the Chicago fire, and 10 or L
n years later he was ready to begin his
giving.
"My wife and / were determined tt
f be our own executors" he said once
1--WE had no children and we did moi
have poor relative. Every one haC
been taken care of; so what was the
; use of our leaving behind us a large
, fortune? We wanted our money to de-
the most good and we started to expenC
= it judicously. We were not giving
wishout thought, because you will see
that we always make the college or the
society do its share-we make then
raise little by their own efforts"
Thus the money went out. In all it i:
known that DR.. Pearsons helped A.
colleges, besides dozen or more soci
S cites, and other institutions. His high
est benefaction was $500, 900; his small
e est around $4,000. He aided Mont
. pelier seminary in Vermont, Middle
= bury college in Vermont, Westminster
e school in his native state, but princi
paly his benefactions were all IN the
? middle West, the South and the fal
West
No large educational institution evel
n received a penny of his money. 'They
don't need it," he said, speaking Of
Harvard, Yale and Princeton. Il an
for the little fellows, the places where
the poor boy can go and get his educa'
j ton" He never helped Chicago uni
versity, for which he had great admi-
ration. John d. Rockefeller will helI
= them all they need he said. Between
Mr.. Rockefeller and himself there was
a great friendship and they often ex-
changed letters. When DR.. Pearsons
would hear of some big donation by
v Andrew Carnegie or Mr.. Rockefeller he
would send few thousands down to g
S little college like Berea in Kentucky