But his religious interest was not confined within denominational lines. He was greatly interested in the Chicago Young Men's Christian Association and was one of its devoted adherents throughout his life in Chicago. He was vice-president of the Association and left it $50,000 in his will.

He was for many years actively interested in the work of the American Sunday School Union.

Each year he gave cheerfully and liberally to the support of the work throughout his long and successful career. When he was disposing of his property by bequest he put these words in his will: “I give and bequeath to the American Sunday School Union, established in the City of Philadelphia, hereby requesting that said sum be employed in promoting the cause of said Sunday School Union in the Western States and Territories, the sum of $50,000. . . . . I should prefer that the legacies or bequests be used so that the interest would keep missionaries in the field, or would enable good to be done as opportunities present themselves."

....

This suggestion as to the general policy of the Sunday School Union of the use to be made of legacies has been followed in the use made of Mr. Crerar's bequest with remarkable results. Every year since 1893 a report has been published showing the work done by the missionaries supported by the income of the fund. At the end of twenty-five years it appeared that three missionaries had been employed each year. About 1,600 Sunday schools had been organized in remote districts of the North and West, with nearly 60,000 scholars. These missionaries had aided in various ways 10,000 Sunday schools in which there were 160,000 pupils. They had distributed 12,000 Bibles or portions of Scripture. Nearly 90 churches had been organized and about 7,000 converts had been led into a new life. These reports are documents of real human interest. They may truthfully be termed live stuff. They make these dry figures live and throb with tragic interest in the incidents they detail of the new hope and joy and life carried into many remote wilderness places. John Crerar still lives and goes about our world in the guise of these earnest missionaries doing good.

And this reminds me of what one of his partners has told me. As he sat at his desk in his office he kept in the upper right-hand drawer, where it was nearest his hand, a check book. When people came in asking his help for any cause he would hear them considerately and if they made a case that appealed to him he would reach for the book and write them a check, entering on the stub what it was for. When his effects were examined after his death these check books were found and proved to be interesting reading. For example on the stub of one check was found the following: "A woman going about doing good." It was

said of him: "His philanthropy knew no bounds or limits, but was constantly active and progressive, without ostentation."

Religion and religious causes did not exhaust his sympathies. He was a director of the Presbyterian Hospital and bequeathed to it $25,000. All the philanthropies that interested him in life he remembered with great munificence when he came to make his will.

The great relief organization for ministering to the destitute in his day was the Chicago Relief and Aid Society. He was one of its officers and took an active interest in its work, leaving it $50,000.

He was particularly interested in the Chicago Orphan Asylum. When writing his will and leaving the asylum $50,000, he added, "Of which I am now vice-president," as though that personal relation gave him satisfaction. In his early days in Chicago he was secretary of the board of the Hospital for Women and Children which then existed. It was only Mr. Crerar's modesty and distaste for public position that kept him from official connection with a score or more of the charitable and other institutions of the city. He was a liberal contributor to their treasuries. To some of them he belonged, as the Chicago Literary Club and the Chicago Historical Society. He aided the latter in securing its first building after the great fire and left it $25,000 in his will, and to the Literary Club he left $10,000.

To organizations with which he had no official connection the munificence shown in his will was only the carrying on of the interest he had manifested in repeated benefactions during his life. Here is the list, excluding those already mentioned and others to be mentioned later: the Nursery and Half Orphan Asylum, $50,000; St. Luke's Free Hospital, $25,000; Chicago Bible Society, $25,000; St. Andrew's Society of New York, $10,000; St. Andrew's Society of Chicago, $10,000; Illinois Training School for Nurses, $50,000; Old Peoples' Home of Chicago, $50,000; Chicago Home of the Friendless, $50,000.

Among the many services the Commercial Club has rendered to the community not the least was the founding in 1882 of the Chicago Manual Training School, now a part of the high school of the University of Chicago. Mr. Crerar was much interested in the project. He was one of the subscribers to the fund of $100,000, raised by the Club to inaugurate the work of the school. He was made a member of the committee to determine the plan of organization and was one of its board of directors to the end of his life. His belief in the work of the school was so great that in making his will he provided a bequest to it of $50,000. He did not indicate in the will how this sum was to be

used. His fellow-trustees, however, doubtless followed what they knew to be his preference when they established a John Crerar Prize to be given to the best student of each graduating class, and distributed the larger part of the income in free scholarships for poor boys needing such assistance.

Soon after the University of Chicago began its work the trustees of the Manual Training School opened negotiations with its representatives looking to the incorporation of the school into the University system. This was finally consummated in 1902 when the Manual Training School became a part of the University High School, bringing to the University funds and equipment amounting to about a quarter of a million dollars. A part of this was the Crerar Fund of $50,000. In the Articles of Agreement it was provided that an annual prize of $20 should be given to one member of each class in the Manual Training Department to be known as the John Crerar Prize; that a scholarship should be given to one member of the graduating class in the Department which should entitle the holder to free tuition through a complete course in any department of the University, to be known as the John Crerar Scholarship, and that the remainder of the income should be used in paying, either in whole, or, in part, the tuition in the Manual Training Department of poor and deserving boys who would otherwise be unable to avail themselves of its privileges, to be known as the Crerar Aid. It was also provided that the principal of the John Crerar Fund should never be impaired or diminished, or the income in any way diverted from the foregoing objects or purposes.

Thus for nearly thirty years in the School and the University between twenty and twenty-five boys have been helped every year to an education in which the hand and the mind have both been trained. Already, six hundred boys have been helped by Mr. Crerar to enter into life with the advantages of this sort of training. And he will, through this endowment, continue to do this as long as the University endures. A little while ago we saw him as a missionary carrying light and life to those dwelling in wilderness places. We here see him as an educator training every year classes of boys for useful and successful lives.

Mr. Crerar was at one time a trustee of the first University of Chicago, but distrustful of its prospects withdrew from the board. Three years later the institution closed its doors. He did not live to see the present University established. The public movement for its founding was inaugurated in Chicago only four months before his death. He was one of the men before whom the plans for the new institution

would have been laid, and who would have given them sympathetic consideration. The University may well feel honored in having the name of such a man as John Crerar enrolled among those who have established special funds for the benefit of those it is preparing for the business of life. For his life and character place him in the front rank among the foremost men of Chicago.

Mr. Crerar's life was not an eventful one, except in the rapid accumulation of wealth. He became Mr. Jesup's partner when about thirty-three years old and continued in the same line of business to the end of his life. He was in business for himself only about twenty-nine years. He was just beginning to make himself known in New York when he made the new departure in his business which took him to Chicago. His life in that city was restricted to twenty-seven years. Beginning at the bottom of the business ladder he climbed steadily and rapidly, but it necessarily took half these twenty-seven years to gain a position of any considerable prominence. He was therefore a well-known and leading man of business for only a few years. He had no liking for prominence or desire for position; he would not accept the presidency of the Commercial Club. He was a strenuous Republican in politics, but once only took any public place. In 1888 he accepted a nomination and was elected a presidential elector in the Harrison campaign. A bachelor with no family life he might have been expected to seek society in the many clubs that were open to such men. But among social clubs he joined but one-the Calumet. He was enamored of a quiet life. He was not a great traveler, going abroad but once. He preferred the city to the country, almost never accepting invitations to visit his friends in their country homes. He was very regular in his habits. Summer and winter he retired and rose at the same hour. He was fond of reading, and read both books and newspapers. In his newspaper reading he was always on the lookout for good stories and jokes. These he cut out and preserved. He had a keen sense of humor and would often inclose a humorous clipping in an envelope and send it anonymously to some friend who would enjoy it. He enjoyed this all the more if it had some personal application his friend would appreciate. After his death a box of these newspaper clippings was found among his effects. He always had scholarly tastes, which he did not permit the exacting demands of a constantly expanding business to suppress. In his young manhood his interest in the Mercantile Library Association of New York made him its president. It was this Association that brought Thackeray to this country on his lecturing visits and it is said.

that Mr. Crerar was largely instrumental in these invitations being sent to the great novelist. It was this interest in books and literature that made this iron merchant a member of the Chicago Literary Club, who so appreciated its work that he made it a bequest of $10,000, as already told.

To one who knew him we are indebted for the following personal glimpse of Mr. Crerar:

....

His demeanor to his fellowmen was the very type and example of equable, dignified gaiety, good humor, kindliness and charity toward all the world. . . . . His favorite attitude was standing firm and erect, the lapel of his coat thrown back and his thumb caught in his vest (pocket]. To see him in this position was a signal for gay welcoming and recognition for friends.

And another says of him: "His dignified yet gentle bearing attracted the eye no less than his kindliness and sympathy warmed the heart." I am told there was an air of distinction in his appearance that attracted attention in any company.

Mr. Crerar's mother did not live to see her son's larger successes. She died in 1873, nine years after he established himself in Chicago. He was always very tenderly attached to her. As he never married he continued to regard New York, where she remained, as home, as long as she lived. But after her death Chicago became home to him, and his attachment to the church, his interest in the things that made for a better city, and his friendships among the best and biggest Chicagoans of his day were such that he became devotedly attached to the city and often declared that he could not be happy permanently in any other place.

Few men have had a higher compliment paid them than came to Mr. Crerar after the great Chicago fire of 1871. He immediately entered with his characteristic energy into the relief work of the Relief and Aid Society, and the New York Chamber of Commerce and other large donors sent their great contributions for the stricken city to him for distribution. He made on men the impression of unimpeachable integrity, of executive ability, and of sincere and wise philanthropy.

He had a peculiar genius for friendship. He formed intimate friendships with some of the foremost men in Chicago. His partners were his friends. Throughout his business career in Chicago he continued in the partnership which was formed at the outset. J. McGregor Adams said of him:

He was a high-souled generous man, liberal in all things, and one whose friendship was a thing to be prized and to be proud of. He was a philanthropist of the noblest type and did a wonderful amount of good in a quiet way. For twenty-five years he