Frank Walter Callender, 1842-1910

Friend and companion

“Mr. Callender,” as he was called by JLN, or “Mr C” as he was referred to almost always in her letters, was JLN’s closest and nearly constant companion during the last decade or so of her life. By all accounts, Mr. Callender gave to her the “protection” she longed for and filled a small space of her loneliness. Their close relationship was of more than casual interest to many. Callender had been described as her close personal friend, companion, private secretary, and “like a son.” Callender disliked being thought her secretary and tried himself to explain their relationship to Dixon in a letter dated December 15, 1894.

In it, he writes: “…The pure [ ] friendship existing between dear Mrs. Newcomb and myself, for many years, has been made the subject for comment, more than once, but He above knows our hearts and blesses our affectionate regard for each other. I write frankly to you, that you may know how I feel—”

Callender was boarding at the house of Mrs. Sherwood, 15 West 20th Street, New York, when JLN began boarding there in 1888, just a year or so after the opening of the H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College. Presumably, they found much to share, possibly of travels, education, art, religion, and likely also loneliness. By the early 1890s, they had become nearly inseparable.

The first we know of Callender is through a letter he wrote to Dixon dated August 16, 1890, in which he tells Dixon that he has shipped a set of Britannica Encyclopedias to the College at Mrs. Newcomb’s request. JLN’s first mention of Mr. Callender is in a letter she sent to Col. Johnston in December of 1890, in which she writes “Mr Callender desires his kind regards to Mrs J and yourself…” From that time forward, she closed nearly all of her letters mentioning Mr C’s regards.

Callender was born in Falmouth, Maine, October 24, 1842, and was then about 46-48 years of age when he met Mrs. Newcomb. In his passport application of 1897, he describes himself as 5 feet 9 inches, blue eyes, straight nose, round chin, oval face, fair complexion, with a mustache and grey hair. Callendar appears to have had some wealth of his own, and also through inheritance at the death of his father and aunt. He was described by others as “a widely traveled man of considerable culture, pleasing personality, and possessing modest wealth;” and “a very liberal man, and kind hearted to a fault. He made lasing friendships wherever he went.”

At the time of their meeting, Callender was a buyer for Marshall Field & Co., in New York. His first few letters to Dixon are written on Marshall Field stationery, though no occupation is mentioned. Research suggests that Callender began working as a salesman at Marshall Field’s predecessor company, Marshall and Leiter, in Chicago, around 1874, and moved into the position of international buyer at Marshall Field. He appears to have moved to Marshall Field’s buying office in New York about 1888-89, quite possibly when Marshall Field opened a European buying office in Manchester, England, the first department store to do so. Ship records show Callender making at least six passages from Liverpool, England, between 1871 and 1887(1871, ‘72, ‘76, with two trips in ‘86, and ’87). Whether all of these voyages were business related is unknown, but they clearly distinguish Callender as an experienced traveler.

It is understandable how many thought Callender to be JLN’s private secretary. She mentions that Mr C answered letters for her, made her appointments, and organized their travel, securing tickets and lodging. From about 1892 on, he went largely where she went. Callender regularly corresponded with Dixon regarding JLN’s affairs, and in more than 50 letters to Dixon, often expressed JLN’s views as well as his own. He took a very active role in selecting the organ for the College chapel and working with the builder, Mr. Roosevelt, to see to its manufacture and placement within the chapel. He was similarly involved in overseeing the design and construction of the chapel’s Tiffany windows, donating himself the triptych of the Resurrection as the memorial to Sophie. In a letter to Dixon he wrote: “The subject is the resurrection. One of the angels is to bear our idealized face of Sophie, and her hair, from the curls we have, to bear the color. It is a [glorious?] picture and none can look upon it without being lifted above the common plane of Earthly Existence.”

One might also understand how Callender could be thought of as a family member, specifically, a “son.” JLN’s life work to memorialize her daughter, also became his. He made many generous donations to the College, in addition to the chapel windows, including an endowed scholarship, books for the library, and at his death, a $65,000 bequest. Like JLN, he personally selected many decorative items to send to the College. From his travels, he commissioned a portrait of Sophie and marble busts of Warren, Josephine, and Sophie. He sent several paintings as well as an antler’s head for the vestibule of the dormitory. Callender’s brother, F. Arthur Callender, who was an artist and on the Tulane University faculty for at least a year, also made several donations of his own work to the College.

It is possible JLN considered Callender “like a son,” and he considered her “like a mother.” Genealogical research appears to indicate that Callender lost his mother before the age of four. His mother and JLN would have been of the same generation, just as he was of the same generation as her son who died shortly after birth. At one point, she turned her entire property over to his name, and then transferred it back to her own name when she wrote her will of 1898.

Callender remained by JLN’s side until her death. Soon after, he left for Europe, and made several trips abroad until his death March 20, 1910, in Catania Italy, where he is buried. Callender’s name appears hundreds of times in the court case transcripts, yet he was never called to submit an affidavit or testify at the trials. No letters to him from JLN have been found.