Gilbert Congdon Carpenter

Biography

In December 1905, Gilbert Congdon Carpenter helped turn a Christmas gift into winter fuel. While working as Mary Baker Eddy's secretary, he proposed that members of her household staff pool money for people who needed coal or wood. The surviving correspondence and receipt, described by the Longyear Museum, record six half-ton deliveries of coal and one delivery of three-eighths of a cord of wood, costing $25 altogether. Carpenter wrote to arrange the assistance; the museum also preserves the recipients' thanks.

Gilbert was the son of Francis Wood Carpenter and Harriet Zeviah Pope. Born in 1869 according to the family chronology, he grew up in the family associated with the Providence, Rhode Island, supply firm Congdon & Carpenter. Cornell's 1921 roster for the class of 1893 records his civil-engineering attendance in 1890–91, also notes study at Brown, and identifies his connection with the family supply company.

He married Minnie Mabel Chamberlain. Their daughter Mary Elizabeth, called Libbie, later married Jack Wicks. Gilbert and Minnie also appear together in the photographic record of the Christian Science community around Eddy. His secretarial service at Pleasant View, Eddy’s home in Concord, New Hampshire, ran from March 1905 to March 1906.

His practical dealings with Eddy began earlier. The Mary Baker Eddy Library records that in 1904 he sold her a Yale automobile and the horses Prince and Duke. The automobile was used in an effort to accustom the horses to motor traffic, with only partial success. Another pair, Dolly and Princess, eventually replaced them.

The fuel purchase the following Christmas shows a different responsibility. Someone had to identify the recipients, obtain suitable fuel, arrange delivery and settle the bill. The letters and receipt put Carpenter directly into that work.

Gilbert died in 1959. The university roster, business association and Pleasant View records document different portions of a life that extended for roughly ninety years.

The family chronology gives 1869 as his birth year, while the Cornell roster gives 1871. His birth year is uncertain.