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In reply to the discussion: Tell us some famous event an ancestor of yours was involved in? My grandfather found [View all]frogmarch
(12,144 posts)of one of my relatives, Henry Cogswell, a dentist, was thrown into Sheipsik Lake because his temperance message was unpopular. It was later recovered but soon disappeared in the lake again. During WWII it was once more removed from the lake and this time, melted down for its metal. In 2006 it was recast and is now Temperance Fountain in Rockville, Connecticut.
Cogswell relatives at the 2006 unveiling in Rockville
Wiki snip:
Cogswell believed that if people had access to cool drinking water they wouldn't consume alcoholic beverages. It was his dream to construct one drinking fountain for every 100 saloons across the United States and many were built. These drinking fountains were elaborate structures built of granite that Cogswell designed himself.
Cogswell's fountains can be found in Washington, D.C., Tompkins Square Park New York City, Pawtucket, Rhode Island, and Rockville, Connecticut. Other examples were erected and then torn down at: Buffalo, Rochester, Boston Common, (removed 1900) Fall River, Massachusetts, Pacific Grove, California, San Jose, California, and San Francisco. 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" and spurred city councils across the country to set up fine arts commissions to screen such gifts
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_D._Cogswell