Castle, Henry Northrup, 1862-1895

Journalist and political leader in Honolulu. Attended Oberlin College.

From the description of Papers, 1872-1927 (inclusive). (University of Chicago Library). WorldCat record id: 41484336

From the description of Papers, 1872-1927 (inclusive). (University of Chicago Library). WorldCat record id: 52246322

Mabel Wing Castle was born June 19, 1864 to Leander Joseph and Zillah Annette Lovering Wing in Providence, RI. She attended Wellesley College, graduating in 1887, and spent time both during and after college teaching Greek, first at a high school in Maine and then at Wellesley High. In 1891 she was encouraged to accept a job teaching Greek at the Punahou School (Oahu College) in Hawaii, which she did.

In 1892, Mabel Wing met Henry Northrup Castle at a concert where she played the piano. Castle, a widower with a young daughter, was the son of Samuel Northrup Castle, patriarch of a wealthy and prominent family on the islands. He was also the close friend and brother-in-law of philosopher George Herbert Mead, who later became guardian of John Ulric Nef, Jr. Mabel Wing and Henry Northrup Castle were married on Christmas Day 1892.

In November of 1894, Mabel Wing Castle’s only child Elinor Henry was born. Henry Castle was at the time in Germany with his first daughter Dorothy, visiting his first wife’s family. In January 1895, alarmed by news of impending revolution in Hawaii, Henry booked passage for Dorothy and himself on the ill-fated German passenger ship Elbe. When the ship collided with another and sank, Henry and Dorothy perished, having never met baby Elinor.

After Henry’s death, Mabel Wing Castle continued to live in Hawaii, writing for the Advertiser (one of the papers owned by her late husband) and caring for members of his family. She and Elinor also travelled extensively during these years, often for health reasons. Mabel had a kidney removed in Chicago in 1899, vacationed in California when Elinor was unwell, and spent the years 1907-1911 in Europe with her daughter and assorted other members of her family, as their health variously allowed or required.

In 1911 Castle moved back to the United States to Lexington, MA, where Elinor attended school in Massachusetts and then in Connecticut. She was active in the women’s suffrage movement through WWI, and continued to travel extensively, often to Chicago to visit sister-in-law Helen Castle Mead. Elinor attended the University of Chicago and also spent much time with the Meads, where she met their ward John Ulric Nef, Jr. The two were married in 1921.

In the 1920s, Castle channeled her interests and energies into vocational guidance, working with various clubs and committees. By 1932, however, she had become active in the peace movement, and served as an officer in the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, an anti-war organization founded by Jane Addams. Now living in California, Castle was also active in the Women’s University Club, particularly in poetry-related projects. She herself was a writer of poetry throughout her adult life. Her first book of poetry, Sonnets for Seventy came out in 1937, on the occasion of her 50th reunion at Wellesley. The second, Birthday Party, came out in 1944 just after her 80th birthday.

Still active in the 1940s with the Women’s International League, Mabel Wing Castle chaired that organization’s Jane Addams Peace Fund Committee (also called the Jane Addams Memorial Fund Committee) from 1942 to 1948. When the Committee was superseded by the Jane Addams Peace Association, Castle became the first president of its board of directors, serving until her death. The Peace Association established a Scholarship Fund in her memory.

Mabel Wing Castle died in Chicago on April 22, 1950. Her reminiscences, recorded by Elinor, were published after both of their deaths by John U. Nef, Jr. under the title My Mother’s Reminiscences.

From the guide to the Castle, Mabel Wing. Papers, 1865-1957, (Special Collections Research Center University of Chicago Library 1100 East 57th Street Chicago, Illinois 60637 U.S.A.)

Henry Northrup Castle (1862-1895) was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, the son of American missionary parents, Samuel and Mary Castle. After spending all of his youth in the islands, where he attended Oahu College, he came to the United States in 1878 to attend Oberlin College. It was at Oberlin that Castle began a close friendship with George Herbert Mead, which lasted the remainder of his short life.

After working two years in his brother Will's law office in Honolulu following graduation from Oberlin in 1883, Castle studied in Germany and for two years at the Harvard Law School. Mead joined Castle at Harvard, and both men continued their studies in Germany. As intellectual companions, they shared a mutual interest in philosophy and literature, and exchanged lively letters extensively on these subjects.

Castle returned to Hawaii after marrying a German girl, Frida Steckner, and became editor and owner of the Pacific Commercial Advertiser and the Hawaiian Gazette, the principal newspapers in the islands. Frida was tragically killed in an accident in 1890, a month after their daughter, Dorothy, was born. After having married his second wife Mabel Wing in 1892, Castle returned, in 1893, to the United States to attend the Hawaiian Commission in Washington, which was investigating American intervention in the Hawaiian revolution to overthrow Queen Lilinokalani, and to visit George and Helen Mead. Mead had married Castle's sister, Helen, in 1891.

In 1894, Castle, ever in search of knowledge, returned to Germany with Dorothy to continue his studies in Leipzig. When word reached him in December 1894 of a counter revolt by Hawaiian royalists, Castle and his daughter left immediately for the islands on the steamship, Elbe, which collided with a small steamer on January 30, 1895 in the North Sea. Both Castle and his daughter were drowned, and he never was able to see his younger daughter, Elinor, who had been born a month before.

Castle was eulogized as a martyr to the cause of democratic government for Hawaii and a loyal supporter of the new Hawaiian Republic. Additionally, he was a man of unusual intellectual attainments whose friendship was an important influence on the career of George Herbert Mead.

From the guide to the Castle, Henry Northrup. Papers, 1863-1942, (Special Collections Research Center University of Chicago Library 1100 East 57th Street Chicago, Illinois 60637 U.S.A.)