Mr. Brewster’s Esperanto Party

E. V. Brewster
A real family man.
He had four of them.

When the New York Sun first wrote about the Esperanto party in Brooklyn, the newspaper stated that gathering would take place “at the home of Mrs. Brewster,” on April 29, 1905. But what about Mr. Brewster? And what about that plan to charge a penny for every failure to speak Esperanto after two hours of practice with an Esperanto grammar? How many pennies were expended in the cause? Happily, the Sun did a follow-up article on the Esperanto gathering.

The subsequent article makes it clear that Mr. Brewster was involved as well. It wasn’t just that it was happening “at the home of Mrs. Brewster,” but that it was Mr. Brewster’s home as well[1] and that Mr. Brewster seems to have been the actual instigator of the event, as he was president of the organization presenting the event. The article also makes it clear that this was not a gathering of Brooklyn esperantists, but instead a group that was curious about the new language. Brooklyn would later be home to plenty of Esperanto speakers, and at least one proponent of Ido.

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Socialist Esperantist Dies in Massachusetts

Charles Horatio Matchett,
Early Esperantist
(circa 1896)

The Wikipedia entry for Charles Horatio Matchett mentions nothing about Esperanto, noting that he was, however, on the first Presidential ticket for the Socialist Party (he ran for Vice President in 1892 and for President in 1896). The winning candidate in 1896 was William McKinley, who received 7,102,246 votes, while Matchett received 36,359 votes, totaling exactly zero electoral votes.[1]

There’s ample genealogical information on Matchett. He was born in Brighton, Massachusetts on May 15, 1843, the son of Charles and Clarissa Matchett. Charles was their second child; he had three sisters, Julia, Clara, and Louisa. He married Georgina Straw, a dressmaker in 1871. They do not appear to have had any children. On the 1910 Census, his status is listed as divorced. But on the 1930 Census, her status is listed as “widowed.” Charles Horatio Matchett died on October 23, 1919 in Allston, Massachusetts.

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