McDonogh Day

John McDonogh's gifts to the children of New Orleans and Baltimore
When millionaire planter and merchant John McDonogh died in 1850, he left his fortune to be divided equally between his native city of Baltimore, MD and his adopted city of New Orleans, specifically for the purpose of creating public schools for the "education of the poor of all castes and races."  The money was used to build more than thirty schools in New Orleans.
The photo below was taken just after the monument was erected in 1898.  Henry Clay's statue can be seen in the background; the building to the left was Odd Fellow's Hall and the building just to the right of the Clay statue was St. Patrick's Hall, once used as the first home of the New Orleans Public Library.
The statue honoring John McDonogh in Baltimore, MD, where they still hold ceremonies every year in his memory at a school which bears his name.
A photo of McDonogh's tomb in the McDonoghville Cemetery, Gretna, near his New Orleans home.  His remains were moved to Baltimore in 1860.
Below and right,
McDonogh Day in 1937.
Did you participate in McDonogh Day?
Do you remember the song?

(Sung to the tune of Baltimore, O, Baltimore)

O, wake the trumpet of renown, far-echoing a hero's name.
Oh, bring the shining laurel crown that marks the glow of honored fame.
McDonogh! Let the trumpet blow and with the garland twine his brow;
Extol him with your voices now; praise to him, all praise to him.
He sought not paths where glory shone, nor dreamed of fame in Southern lore.
Twin cities claim him for their own, New Orleans and fair Baltimore.
He gave his wealth to educate, he lived that end to consummate;
His memory, then, perpetuate. Praise to him, all praise to him.
McDonogh, unto thee we rear a monument of fairest art,
In memory of thy high career, enshrined within each grateful heart.
Now, ready hands your offerings bring, now youthful tongues laudations sing,
Until the heavens with echoes ring; praise to him, all praise to him.

-- Myra Font, a New Orleans Public School teacher
John McDonogh late in his life
Just after the dedication of the monument, 1898.
McDonogh No. 4, photo ca. 1896
Pictured above is McDonogh No. 7, one of the few New Orleans schools which still bears John McDonogh's name....and the school I attended when I started Kindergarten many moons ago!  The photo on the left was taken in about 1960 and the photo on the right is current.  This school was built in 1877 and is in the Uptown neighborhood of the city--the "sliver by the river" of high ground, so it sustained very little damage from Katrina and none from the flooding after the levee failures.
      Abstracts from the Memoranda by John McDonogh to the Executors of his Estate

    The Plan which my mind formed (influenced, I trust by the Divine Spirit) and has pursued for nearly Forty Years, to accumulate and get together a large Estate, in lands, lots of ground, in and near the City, Houses, etc., for the Education of the Poor, will in time, I doubt not, yield a revenue sufficient to educate all the Poor of the two States of Louisiana and Maryland.  To effect and secure that I have laid its Foundations deep and broad, in and all around the City of New Orleans in every direction, so that for centuries to come (if managed in wisdom), its Revenue must and will go on increasing in amount with the growth and entention of the City (which is destined to be one of the greatest in extent and population the world has ever seen), until its Rents shall amount to some millions of dollars annually.  If, therefore, those who will come after me and will have the management of this store (which I have striven to amass and pile up)will labor to increase and render it productive with the same fidelity which I have husbanded it and striven to make it a great one, then, indeed, it will become in time a huge mountain of wealth, and will yield its increase to the Honor of God and the benefit of Generations. yet unborn, through all Ages of the World.
   In relation to man's happiness, constituted as he is, I have always been convinced that the intellectual cultivation of the Youth of our Country ALONE, without religious cultivation, cannot secure it or give permanency to the Free institutions of the Country, as they now exist.  Education, separated from Religion yields no security to morality and Freedom.
   I trust, I pray, that the mode I have adopted to effectuate it will receive the Divine Blessing.  I have, notwithstanding, much, very much, to complain of the World, rich as well as poor.  It has harassed me in a thousand different ways.  Great injustices have been instituted and carried on against me, to deprive and take from me property honestly acquired (for I have none, nor would have any that was not acquired by honest industry and the sweat of my brow), and when obliged to seek justice through Courts of Law (after waiting years and years with those who were indebted to me, and refused payment), it has often been refused me.  Many and many times, have juries of my fellow men given me a stone when I asked them for bread.
   They said of me, he is rich, old, without wife or child, let us take from him then what he has.  Infatuated men, they knew not that was an attempt to take from themselves, for I was laboring, and had labored all my life, not for myself, but for them and their children.  Their attempts, however, made me not to swerve, either to the right hand or to the left.  I persevered an onward course, determined to do them good, whether they would have it, or whether they would not have it.
   And I have so striven, so labored to the last.  The result is in the hands of Him who fixes and determines all results.  He will do therewith as seemeth good unto Himself.

Signed:  John McDonogh
The photograph of McDonogh No. 4, portrait of John McDonogh and McDonogh's Memoranda to his Executors were taken from "The Story of Algiers:  The Past and Present" by William H. Seymour, published 1896 and available online here.
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The Past Whispers - Home
   Initially, the public school children of the city gathered at John McDonogh's gravesite across the river in Gretna, and placed flowers on his grave to show their gratitude for his bequest on their behalf.  In 1860, his remains were moved by his family to Baltimore, but still the children gathered at the cemetery every year.  Finally, a fund was started to build a monument to him.  For six years, the children of New Orleans saved their pennies to build a monument (pictured above and below) to John McDonogh.  The monument, dedicated in 1898, stands in Lafayette Square and faces Gallier Hall (above), which was used by New Orleans as its City Hall until 1958.  Because the funds were raised by the children, it reads: "To John McDonogh from the Public School Children of New Orleans, 1892 - 1898."
   From 1898 until the 1950's, the children of New Orleans gathered at this monument every year in May...the girls in their Sunday-best white dresses and the boys in starched white shirts; they brought flowers to leave at the monument, bands played, speeches were made and the "Ode to McDonogh" was sung.  When the new City Hall was constructed in 1958, another statue of John McDonald, who was generally referred to as "the father of New Orleans Public Schools," was erected across from the new building in Duncan Plaza. 
   However, as time went on, the tradition began to have fewer schools participanting and, through the years, the names of most of the McDonogh Schools were changed.  Currently, only a handful of schools still bear McDonogh's name.  Today, just one school, the McDonogh School across the river in Gretna, near the site of his home, still commemorates the occasion.
   McDonogh was something of an enigma, especially as he got older and became a bit of a recluse.  But, even then, he managed to involve himself in public disputes that kept his name in the local newspapers.  He certainly didn't shy away from controversy.  And, to an extent, controversy has followed his name down through the many years since his death. 
   On a personal note, the first school I attended was McDonogh No. 7 (picture further down on page).  I didn't know much about John McDonogh in those days, but I recall how eagerly I always looked forward to McDonogh Day, although my motives had less to do with John McDonogh and more to do with my own displeasure at attending school.  Think of it...dressing in my Sunday finery and spending a day in the park, instead of a day in the classroom!  For a child of New Orleans, the only thing better than McDonogh Day would've been finding the Roman Candy man parked outside of your school at the close of the day!