Asheville Citizen-Times from Asheville, North Carolina • Page 122

ASIIEVILI.E CITIZEN-TIMES. ASHEVILLE. N. Sming V.C Since 18T0 Sunday, July 17. 1960 George Willis Pack: Asheville's Great Benefactor i VA Ytiit ''In JL' i t' A' 4Sft dt' ma i.

1 "To tha Commissioners of tha County of Baa-combe: I offer to five to tha county, to be used for a sit for a court house and county offices, tha land on College Street in Asheville which 1 pur-chased from CoL A. T. Davidson, provided that tha county will dedicate to the public, forever, to ba used for tha purposes of a public square park or place, whatever land the county may now wa within the limits of the public square, so-called, la Asheville, the present court house to ba removed therefrom prior to such date as you may aire upon with Judge Merrimon and Mr. Gwyn, actinf for me. Dec.

31, 1900. Geo. W. Pack." Pack was in New York at tha time, but was thinking of the county's plight. As tha monument had left work for the citizens, as the library bad to be furnished and lighted, to this offer, too, at once aided and challenged tha recipients.

It would take, the commissioners estimated, between $50,000 and $100,000 to build a courthouse, financed by 30 to 40 year In a private letter. Pack wrote to Gwya ana Jadge J. H. Merrlmoa explaialag: "My Idea waald that the rw courthouse should stand la tha middle of the Davidsoa land, so as te be as Baca removed as eaa be from noise, aid I would like la have It stipulated that the land Is only to be vied for a courthouse and county offices the Jail Joins Ibis land la the rear and the Jail, I thiak. should always remain ea that land.

I would willing to deliver a deed against proper actisa aa the part et the county, dedicating the land la tha square, as I may be advised by yon, proper conditions to ba made In the deed for the ereetlan of a eourthoas within a specified time, or the land lo revert to me T. If you will accept this mission, you will place me under renewed obligation." Hit property offered by Pack was on the south side of College Street adjoining tha Knickerbocker boarding house property on the west. An oldtime mansion stood on it in a grove of great trees. The lot, at that time, had a frontage of 310) feet and extended to a depth of mora than 400 feet. It was considered a very valuable piece of property.

Of such a gift, the Daily Citizen on Jan. 2, 1901, said: "We salute George W. Pack! If heaven has vouchsafed to any community a better citizen, the fame of him has not reached Qiese parts It were superfluous to wish for Mr. Pack in his day 1 of lengthening shadows. The happiness which abides for the blessed fruitage of his life is the sura evidence of God's sunshine in his soul." On January 8, the commissioners, not without some "fear and trembling" accepted the offer.

Chairman Reed, year, later, was to say that torn people were "ready to lynch the commissioners" for agreeing to spend $50,000 for a courthouse. In the transactions necessary to preserve the site of the courthouse and other county-owned land on the square as a public park, the area was deeded by the county to the city, designating the entir site as "Pack Square." Sadly, the city was to learn that Mr. Pack's stay in New York was not to be a short one. His own health was failing and he was compelled to live as near sea level as possible. But a garteful city had received still other gifts.

On May 11, 1900, Pack had deeded property at the corner of Flint and Magnolia to the city as a park. After years of use, it fell into disuse and only in the past several years has the city again carried out park and recreational activities there. The city also received Montford Avenue park during this period, and today it is one of the eity'i most-used public parks. The new courthouse on College Street was eeit-ttrncted daring 1901-1 and county functions traas- Pack in 1900. Visible behind the courthouse is the spire and part of the structure of the old City Hall.

At right foreground is the old First National Bank (PalmettpJ building which Pack purchased and donated as a home for the city library. The small THIS WAS COURT HOUSE SQUARE in 1898 as it appeared during the' years in which benefactions of George Willis Pack brought many changes to the face of Asheville. Construction of Vance Monument, spurred by his initial donation, hart hppn rnmnlptpH. The old courthouse with its bell dome tower still dominated the square but a movement was under way zen," located on the approximate site of the library's main read-to remove it, culminating with the donation of a new site by ing room today. By DUI RttD Clliita Tlmri Staff riter lie was the greatest benefactor Asheul'e ever had.

Tliat was th conhdent Judgment of hia on generation. Tune ba But altered it. la af laral alslerv. fortprials al George Willis Park arc thotc al a great maa. They mar bleared, but Ihrjr raaaot be enwd.

The years have. hoeer. dimmed his image A modern city, surrounded by the physical evidences of hit legacy to a town he loved, hat largely forgotten him. Tack Square bears his name. Pack Memorial Public Library stands in his memory.

He was largely responsible for Vance Monument. The Buncomb County Courthouse stands today on property ht gave for its predecessor. Children and adulta enjoy three city parks donated to the city. Mission Hospital and the YMCA are greatly In his debt. The public schools will find his work In early kindergartens.

And forged by his hand were other links that gave a young city strength. Tack was man of great foresight. He perceived those things that would serve, and supplied them. In bestowing his charities, he did not grant them as favors. Thus, he never robbed th city of its stalwart pride, matching charity of the purs with a charity of the mind.

With all that he left to Asheville. the record of his years as a citizen here Is often vague. It Is known that he came doa from Cleveland la the Spring of 184. atopplag al the Swaaaaaea Hotel. Hia wife's health was poor and physlrlaal bad advised him to try Ih famoas North Carolina mountain climate.

It is probable that he made arrangements that Spring for work to begin on a home in North Asheville on what is now Merrimon Avenue. He named his mansion now occupied by Morris-Hendon-Black Funeral Home) "Manyoaks." The next year, he brought his wife and, at S3 years of age. Pack began his residence in Asheville. The mountain folk soon discerned that this was not just another rich Yankee come South to display his wealth. Pack was a man of quiet demeanor, conservative in his habits.

His wealth and he was millionaire had been earned. From early youth, he worked hard for what he gained. In a measure, he was indebted to an English ancestry for such a sterling character. He was descended from English Immigrants to New Jersey who distinguished themselves in the Revolutionary War and in early Indian fighting. The Tacks of New Jersey and New York were a sturdy, courageous and Industrious class of men, strongly Imbued with a love of freedom and Independence.

Into this line of descent, George Willis Pack was born June 6, 1831, In Fenner Township, Madison County, New York. He bore the same Christian name as his father and grandfather. His mother, Maria Lathrop, was of Connecticut Puritan stock. His heritage was Inventiveness, Independence of character and coaiervatism from the Packs; an abiding cheerfulness and unfailing faith from the Lathrops. But to young Pack alone was due the credit for the development and wise direction of that Inheritance.

His common school education was supplemented by Presbyterian Sunday school training under the famous antislavery leader Gerritt Smith, whose strong mentality and forcefulnejs of character were to Imprint themselves on the youth. When he was 17, tha boy accompanied his father lo Sanilac County, Michigan. There, they cleared a farm In the heavily-timbered forests. And young Pack became acquainted with the raw material which was to hare so Important a bearing upon his future career. By early manhood, he was familiar enough with timber to become capable of cruising.

For some years, he worked aa a limber erulser through-u the vast wilderness. In 1851, he married Miss Frances Farnam of Milwaukee and in the same year atarted a small lumber business. With initiative and a thoroughly acquired knowledge of lumber manufacturing and sales, he rapidly assumed a prominent plac as the dominant force in a series of large lumbering and wholesaling concerns of the Northwest. Their names form a catalogue of the great timbering operations of the late 19th century: Car. rington Pack, Pack.

Jenks Woods Co Woods. Pack Woods. Perry Pack'. Woods Co. and Pack.

Gray Co. Their uniform success was largely accredited to Pack's intuitive leadership, industry and executive ability. hen Pack moved to Asheville. he did not sev. er connections with his many interests in Cleveland Michigan and New York.

But he had younger men to whom he gave much of the responsibility or management of hi, firms and his years in Ashe- rrad much and voted his life to his family-hi, v. tie. on and two daughters. in a way remarkable for Asheville. Tack qu I became one of it, most esteemed citizen, occupied a uniaue no.itinn f.

uick- Hft as ne a in a flection rare even fm- n. an mong people. l.fctimt "I6 d'd not "ppeal 10 Pack beyond his of the citizen', duty to his country In 4med lW'il- regent and a presidential elector or that sta life, fhunned the public v. mM. and happLinre'-Sort We was greatly interested in his home.

"Manyoaks. and designed and constructed the rough-stone well-house on its grounds. He Joined the Asheville and Swannanoa club nd took heart-felt interest in his adopted home. Presently, the city became aware that Pack was quietly providing funds for a number of widows and both white and colored. He contributed to the Flower Mission to provide for tha poor, and even when far from home remembered the needy of Asheville through money sent for food and luel.

No record show, the sum, he gave, but over the years they were large. His first major benefaction for the general public came on June 4, 1892, when he provided the Faraii Garrison Kindergarten for the Asheville Ira Kindergarten Association. building at right angles those who had formed the Vance Monument Association. This group had been formed May 16, 1894, a little over a month after Vance' death that year. But In two years' time, It had raised Just about $30 toward the cost of a monument.

Powell was a member of Its executive committee. On May 30, 1896, Pack penned this unpretentious note to the county commissioners without any prior disclosure of his plans: "Gentlemen: If the County of Buncombe will give the land in front of the court house for a site for a monument in honor of Zebulon B. Vance, I will give $2,000 towards the erection of such a monument. Your obedient servant, Geo. W.

Pack." The townsfolk and the commissioners were overwhelmed. And Pack had given enough to insure the construction, but not too much to make the monument his work alone. Over the next year, $1,300 was raised, including $100 given by the Daily Citizen to get the fund rolling. On July 4, 1896, "subscription day" was observed throughout every township in Western North Carolina to raise fundj for the monument. In 1897, a contract to build the shaft was awarded to James G.

Colvin on a bid of $2,758. The monument was designed by R. S. Smith and ground was broken Oct. 23, 1897 with John Y.

Jordan turning the first shovelful of dirt. The cornerstone was laid Dec. 22, 1897 with elaborate Masonic rite, and great oratory. The monument was completed about five months later. Pack had no part In any of these public ceremonies.

But the Daily Citiien recognized him "as a generous, broadminded citizen." Records indicate he may have been abroad during much of 1897. In 1898, Pack gave the Swannanoa Club grounds "and golf links to the members of that organization, completing the arrangement on Dec. 24 of that year. During the winter months of 1898 and 1899, Pack sent large sums of money to an emergency fund for relief of the poor during a particularly severe winter. Learning during the Spanish-American War of 1898 that Asheville boys in the First North Carolina Regiment needed money to tide them over to the government payday, he sent them $500.

Later, when they Insisted on treating the gift as a loan and repaid the entire amount. Pack was S3 touched he wept. Recipients of Pack's generosities seldom had advance knowledge of his Intentions. Thus, when Haywood Parker, president of the Asheville Library Association, opened his mail on Feb. 1, 1899, he was almost overcome to read: "Dear Sir: I offer to purchase from its present owner the Palmetto Building, formerly the First National Bank building, with the land appertaining thereto and give it to the Asheville Library, with the understanding that the Library shall be installed in the large room formerly occupied by tha bank, and that the corporation shall be free from debt when it receives the conveyance of the property.

"I will remove the bank vault and do the necessary work to prepare for the library, but will not supply furniture or lighting fixtures. The property to be conveyed and possession given on or before April 1, 1899. Yours respectfully, Geo. W. Tack." Tarker, who announced the gift immediately, said it was a complete surprise.

The Daily Citizen commented that "Mr. Pack's wise and discriminatory generosity is only surpassed by the dignified modesty that has always characterized the bestowmont of his gifts." In the February 3 issue of the paper, an anonymous letter writer proposed that library services should be provided free to the general public, which until then had been Impossible. Whether this came to Pack's attention is not known, but when he conveyed the property it became a stipulation. He purchased the site from Miss Ida For-man. paying a sum variously estimated at from $20,000 to $30,000.

As the income from other offices in the building was now to become revenue for the library, the munificence of the gift was enhanced still more. Pack's third concern turning the Court Square into a public park may be traced to 1896, the year he gave funds for the Vance Monument. He had expressed then a desire to see a park created and the court house located elsewhere. On July 7, 1896, the county commissioners alter discussions of several months, decided to advertise for proposal, for a court house site, either by purchase outright, or in exchange for the siie on the squaie. This evok'd, in the Daily to it was tne office of "une Daily un Citizen, comments from scores of citizens, suggesting sites ranging from Church Street to the "Pack property on College Street." The latter suggestion wa, made, among others, by Locke Craig, prominent young lawyer who was to become governor in later years.

(Pack had acquired the College Street property from Col. A. T. Davidson, and it included at least part of the land on which the present Courthouse stands, and the land in front of the courthouse which is now part of City-County Plaza.) But whether Craig's rather direct hint escaped Pack's notice, or whether the county simply could not afford to build, it wa, not until the dawn of the 20th century that events matured. As 1900 drew to a close, the county commissioners faced a deficit of $5,500 for the past year.

Other encumberances swelled excess liabilities to near $40,000. Officials and taxpayers alike were moved to concern and a mass meeting had been called for Jan. 2, 1901 In the court house to discuss county financial questions. Primarily at issue was whether to issue short-term bonds to pay the indebtedness. Ten years was considered the maximum period because the general sentiment was that the generation which incurred the debts should pay them.

At the same time, the county was facing new demands and new needs. More and better schools were required, new roads were to be built and old ones repaired. The question of a new court house remained a vital one. But, being prepared for settling ways of paying off a sizable debt, the assemblage was certainly unprepared for what came whon W. B.

Gwyn gained the floor. "Mr. Chairman," he said, addressing Mark L. Reed, "I have a letter to read Front view of main section of the Courthouse in 1898. Yf iV 'Si 'Y fs 'y (.

I tY JX i Hi 'l jJ, '''M'! In i i I 1 pack purchased a lot for $600 In North Asheville on the east side of East Street between Seney and Hillside 'only the latter street Is on current city maps). He employed the architectural firm of Willi Bros, lo design the schoolhouse, leaving arrange, ment of the rooms to Mrs. O. M. Quayle, superintendent of the school.

The contract to build it, exclusive of painting, was let to Milton Harding on $1,650 bid. The total cost. Including grading and fencing, ran between $2,500 and $3,000. Then he deeded It as a gift to the association. Pack paid the salary of one of the Sarah Garrison Kindergarten teachers throughout the rest of his life.

After his death, it was revealed he also had provided annually about one fourth the cost of operating the school. The kindergarten was operated to prepare less fortunate children for further education. Many Asheville youngster, of the day would have gona unschooled without the free training made available. The kindergarten later was incorporated into the city school system when it and two others operated by the association were deeded to the city for $8,000.30. The public school kindergarten work was abandoned in 1930.

Pack was a man to whom money meant a mean, of accomplishing thing, worthwhile cultural, ly and esthetically. Although ba headed firms which took millions of feet of lumber from tha woodlands, he did not like to see a tree cut down. He looked upon the woods as a power for good. When he came to Asheville, It was natural he should look for opportunities to give the adopted town things that would be both useful and inspirational. The public square at that time was dominated by a big, three-story court house, with bell tower, that stood in the center of the square at the east end.

On the south side of the square were the First National Bank and Daily Citizen buildings. It is apparent today that Pack must have envisioned from the beginning the transformation of Court Square into something more attractive. He wa, able to accomplish this in three distinct steps. In 1890, Pack in a conversation with Gcorga S. Powell, a prominent citizen, said he felt step should be taken to preserve for all time the property about the court house as a public square.

A new courthouse, he suggested, might be built in some other part of the city. As it happened, Powell was one of a group of citizens interested in constructing a monument to the memory of the late Sen. Z. B. Vance, North, Carolina', Buncombe-born Civil War governor, who died two years previously.

Powell told Pack with some eagerness that it had long boen the hope of a number of Asheville people that, in time, the square might be used for the erection of a monument to Sen. Vance. Mention of Vance found ready ground in Pack's mind. He had greatly admired Vance and hod mourned his death, although he was not among 4 GEORGE WILLIS PACK 'im i. i I i' i ferred.

On Dec. 24, 1802, the county moved to cany out the second part of the agreement with Pack, selling the eld courthouse on the square to John A. Campbell and C. T. Rawls (later mayor) for to be removed by May 15, 1903.

There were 1, 200,000 bricks In It. During 1902 and the early part of 1903, Pack continued to bestow gifts in the city, although by then living in New York. He gave $1,000 to tha YMCA, then struggling to raise funds for a building. He gave to the city some 13 acres for a park, now known as Aston Park. He gave $5,000 to tha old Mission Hospital, later giving another $5,000 in 1905-6 and unspecified others sum, to the hospital.

On Aug. 12, 1903, R. J. Slokely, a former resident, while in Asheville proposed that a portrait of Pack be painted and hung in a place of honor in the new courthouse, the cost of $150 to be borne by public subscription. The funds were subscribed and on Jan.

19, 1904, in a "great public occasion," the portrait wa unveiled in the courtroom, placed between paintingi of Zebulon B. Vance and Gn. R. B. Vance to form "the trinity of the noble sons of Buncombe." Locke Craig on that occasion, said of Pack's gifts: "He made these gifts not at the request of anyone.

Needed though they were, indispensable as they now appear, they always came to us as a surprise. They were all the result of his own-generous impulse: they were made, not as an invitation for praise or flattery, but modestly, unostentatiously, with no self laudation he gave because he wanted to give Gwyn, prominent businessman and often Pack's representative, declared "Well may the young men of Buncombe County, who look upon this picture, inquire about Mr. Pack-Mho he is what manner of man he is what he has done for himself, his family and for humanity Pack was. of course, not present. Now hi health was failing altogether and he spent the rest of his days at his Southampton, Long Island home.

On Aug. 31, 1906, at the age of 75, he died. The Citizen mourned that "no grief is too deep, no eulogy too extravagant, no memorial shaft too costly to do Justice to him in whose heart the city of Asheville was enshrined." The board of aldermen ordered prepared resolutions of sorrow and respect and on Sept. 4 held a mass meeting in the court house that they might be adopted by the entire city. The day coincided with services for Pack in Cleveland.

The library closed, and draped its doors in black. The county commissioners adjourned In his honor. Businesses closed their doors, judges in the courtrooms yaid tributes and recessed for the day. A city that knew George Willis Pack Tiad been its greatest benefactor It was suggested that Pack's memory should he perpetuated, and thouht was given to placing a plaque In the court house he had made possible. "It would tell." The Cltlrea said, rotare generations Ihe debt the present one Incurred." But the mrmnr.r nf George Willis Park was fad and a city I forget.

1 i.