Henry D. Cogswell 3168386 148291102 2007-07-31T15:44:49Z Dugwiki 1533857 replaced cat with subcat [[Image:Henry Cogswell.jpg|thumb|Henry D. Cogswell, ca. 1850-52]] Dr. '''Henry Daniel Cogswell''' ([[March 3]], [[1820]] &ndash; [[July 8]] [[1900]]) was a [[dentist]] and a crusader in the [[temperance movement]]. He and his wife Caroline also founded [[Cogswell College]] in [[Sunnyvale, California]]. [[Henry Cogswell College|Another campus]] in [[Everett, Washington]] was later dedicated in his honor. Born in [[Tolland, Connecticut]], Cogswell's family were descendants of [[Alfred the Great]] and [[Charlemagne]]. As a youth, he worked in the [[New England]] [[cotton mill]]s and studied by night. He became a dentist in [[Providence, Rhode Island]] at age 26. When the [[California Gold Rush]] started, the Cogswells decided to go west. However, they did not do any [[mining]] themselves. Instead, he offered dentistry services to miners and invested in [[real estate]] and mining stocks, becoming one of [[San Francisco]]'s first millionaires. A pioneer in his field, Cogswell designed the vacuum method of securing [[dental plate]]s and was the first in [[California]] to perform a dental operation using [[chloroform]].<ref name="college">{{cite web | url=http://www.cogswell.edu/historicalOverview.html | title=Historical Overview | publisher=Cogswell Polytechnical College | accessdate=2007-06-10}}</ref> [[Image:Tempwiki.jpg|thumb|left|140px|Temperance Fountain, Washington, D.C.]] Cogswell believed that if people had access to cool drinking water they wouldn't consume [[alcoholic beverage]]s. It was his dream to construct one [[drinking fountain]] for every 100 saloons across the [[United States]] and many were built.<ref>{{cite news | url=http://www.rockvillect.com/Cogswell/fountain.htm | title=CTown Plans to Restore Fountain as Part of Park Project | publisher=[[The Hartford Courant]] | first=Lee | last=Foster | date=[[April 6]] [[2004]] | accessdate=2007-06-10}}</ref> These drinking fountains were elaborate structures built of granite that Cogswell designed himself. Cogswell's fountains can be found in [[Washington, D.C.]], [[New York City]], [[Buffalo, New York|Buffalo]], [[Rochester, New York|Rochester]], [[Boston, Massachusetts|Boston]], and San Francisco. The D.C. fountain is known as the "[[Temperance Fountain]]." The concept of providing drinking fountains as alternatives to saloons was later implemented by the [[Women's Christian Temperance Union]]. These grandiose statues were not well-received by the communities where they were placed. The Temperance Fountain has been called "the city's ugliest statue"<ref>{{cite news | title=...Toasted Temperance | url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A40962-2003Sep20.html | publisher=[[Washington Post]] | date=[[September 21]] [[2003]] | pages=C02 | accessdate=2007-06-10}}</ref> and spurred city councils across the country to set up fine arts commissions to screen such gifts.<ref>{{cite book | first=Bryson | last=Rash | title=Footnote Washington | publisher=EPM Publications | year=1983 | id=ISBN 0-914440-62-4}}</ref> Although the D.C. statue survived mostly unscathed, the San Francisco one was torn down by "a lynch party of self-professed art lovers"<ref name="hooch">{{cite news | title=Fountain of Hooch | url=http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/Park/8386/cogswell.htm | publisher=[[Washington City Paper]] | first=Greg | last=Kitsock | date=[[January 3]], [[1992]] | accessdate=2007-06-10}}</ref> and one in [[Rockville, Connecticut]] was thrown into Shenipsic Lake.<ref>{{cite news | title=Back where he belongs: Dr. Henry Cogswell statue once again graces Rockville’s Central Park | url=http://www.rockvillect.com/Cogswell/dedication.htm | publisher=Rockville Reminder | first=Jessica | last=Ciparelli | date=[[November 1]] [[2005]] | accessdate=2007-06-10}}</ref> In [[Dubuque, Iowa]] a statue of Cogswell that sat in [[Washington Park, Dubuque|Washington Park]] was pulled down by a group of vandals in [[1900]] and buried under the ground of a planned sidewalk. The next day the sidewalk was poured and the object was entombed. However, when new sidewalks were recently laid, the statue was not found.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=ab8994ab-8201-4ca1-b9be-9e1f2eefd8da | title=Monument Park | publisher=Geocaching.org | accessdate=2007-06-10}}</ref> Cogswell also designed the statue for his own tomb, a 400-ton granite tower, complete with fountains and statues of Hope, Faith, Charity and, Temperance. He is buried in [[Mountain View Cemetery (Oakland, California)|Mountain View Cemetery]] in [[Oakland, California]].<ref>{{cite news | url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2001/01/05/NB181440.DTL | title=They're 6 Feet Under, But Pioneers Draw Crowds to Oakland | publisher=[[San Francisco Chronicle]] | date=[[January 5]] [[2001]] | first=Abby | last=Cohn | accessdate=2007-06-10}}</ref> The diaries of Cogswell and his wife Caroline cover 37 years (1860&ndash;1897) and are an unusually long and consistent record of busy personal and financial life in the western United States. They are kept at the [[Bancroft Library]] at the [[University of California, Berkeley]]. ==References== {{Reflist}} ==External links== * [http://content.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/tf8k4006t6/ Cogswell Papers at the Bancroft Library] * [http://www.cogswell.org/ Cogswell Family Association] {{Persondata |NAME=Cogswell, Henry Daniel |ALTERNATIVE NAMES= |SHORT DESCRIPTION=American dentist and temperance crusader |DATE OF BIRTH=[[March 3]], [[1820]] |PLACE OF BIRTH=[[Tolland, Connecticut]] |DATE OF DEATH=[[1900]] |PLACE OF DEATH= }} {{DEFAULTSORT:Cogswell, Henry D.}} [[Category:1820 births]] [[Category:1900 deaths]] [[Category:American dentists]] [[Category:California people in health professions]] [[Category:American temperance activists]]