Pardee, Calvin, 1841-1923

Calvin Pardee (1841-1923) was the son of anthracite coal entrepreneur, Ariovistus ("Ario") Pardee, Jr. Calvin graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1860 and was a member of Theta Delta Chi Fraternity. After graduating, he went to work for the Glendon Iron Company (Easton, PA), of which his father was primary owner. He joined the Union Army during the Civil War and served with two regiments of the Pennsylvania Volunteers. Calvin spent the next 22 years working in his father's business, A. Pardee & Co. in Hazleton, PA as the superintendent of mines. In 1884, he left his father's company to pursue his own ventures in coal, gas, and other enterprises. He founded the Pardee Brothers Company which was the largest source of his own fortune which he passed down to his own children in 1903.

"Calvin Pardee was born on July 17, 1841 in Hazleton, Pennsylvania to budding industrial entrepreneur Ariovistus ("Ario") Pardee, [II], and Elizabeth (Jacobs) Pardee. The success of Ario's firm A. Pardee and Co. in the anthracite coal business soon made him a leading citizen of Hazleton. Calvin had an older brother, Ariovistus Pardee III, and two younger sisters, Alice and Ellen Eliza Pardee. Their mother Elizabeth died in childbirth in 1847, and a year later Ario married Anna Maria Robinson, with whom he had ten children, eight of whom survived past childhood.

"In 1851 Ario sent his two eldest sons to school at the Luzerne Presbyterian Institute in Wyoming, PA. A dispute with the headmaster in the fall of 1854, however, prompted Ario to withdraw Calvin from the school and send him to the West Jersey Collegiate Institute in Mt. Holly, NJ where his older brother Ario was by then studying. Calvin was admitted to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY in 1857, two years after his brother Ario had enrolled. The boys boarded together for a year until Ario graduated in 1858. Calvin was a member of the Theta Delta Chi fraternity during his three years at Rensselaer. He graduated in 1860 in a class of eighteen students.

"After graduating Calvin went to Easton, PA to work for the Glendon Iron Company, of which his father was the primary owner. In April 1861 at age nineteen, however, he enlisted in the army at the start of the Civil War, serving first with Company D, 1st Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers, and then as a second lieutenant with Company N, 28th Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers, a company funded by his father. This unit saw several minor engagements and held defensive posts and in September 1862 was present at the battle of Antietam. Calvin, then a captain, had a renewed attack of typhoid fever the day before the battle. Despite his desire to return to the army, he was declared unfit for further duty and resigned on October 30, 1862.

"Calvin spent the next 22 years working in his father's business, A. Pardee and Co., in Hazleton as the superintendent of mines, a position held by his brother before the war. He married Mary Byrne Day on June 4, 1867, and they became parents of nine children: Estelle, Alice, Calvin, Alfred, Ario, Ellie (who died in childhood), Olive, Howard, and Helen. In 1884 he left his father's company in order to pursue his own initiatives, including widespread ventures in coal, gas, and other enterprises in both Hazleton and beyond. He was already operating the Pardee Brothers Company, which he formed to develop the Lattimer mines near Hazleton. It was the largest source of his own fortune and was passed on to his children in 1903.

"In 1886 Calvin moved to Philadelphia with his family and three years later purchased a summer farm in Whitemarsh sixteen miles outside of the city. Upon completing their schooling his sons Calvin, Alfred, and Ario joined the family businesses in Philadelphia and Hazleton. With them to share responsibilities, Calvin began diverse enterprises in West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky, and Louisiana in land, coal, and other interests. In his later years Calvin began to travel throughout the world, including ventures to Europe, the Far East, Egypt, and Russia. His devotion to his family was fondly remembered by his descendents, and he hosted large numbers of Pardees at his summer home every year. In the spring of 1922 his health began to fail, and he died on March 18, 1923. He was survived by six of his children and his wife Mary, who died ten years later."

Bibliography:

Lafayette College, Skillman Library. Finding aid for Pardee, Calvin, Papers, 1856-1861. Accessed January 19, 2011. http://archives.lafayette.edu/sites/archives.lafayette.edu/files/pardeecalvin.pdf