Frederic A. Godcharles

Infobox Politician (general)
name=Frederic A. Godcharles


image_width=200px
title= Pennsylvania House of Representatives
term_start=1901
term_end=1902
predecessor=
successor=
title2=Pennsylvania Senate
term_start2=1905
term_end2=1908
predecessor2=
successor2=
title3= Director of the State Library of Pennsylvania and State Museum
term_start3=1927
term_end3=1931
predecessor3=
successor3=
title4=
term_start4=
term_end4=
predecessor4=
successor4=
birth_date=June 3 1872
birth_place=Northumberland, Pennsylvania
death_date=December 30 1944
death_place=Leonardtown, Maryland
party= Republican
residence= Milton, Pennsylvania
spouse=Mary Walls Barber
profession=
religion=
footnotes=

Frederic Antes Godcharles (June 3 1872 - December 30 1944) was a Pennsylvania politician, historian and author, who served as soldier and as director of the State Library of Pennsylvania and State Museum of Pennsylvania.

Personal life

Godcharles was born on June 3 1872 in Northumberland, Pennsylvania, the first of five children of Elizabeth (born Burkenbine) and Charles Aiken Godcharles. His four younger siblings were Mary, Charles, Walter, and Elizabeth (the last three were born in Milton, Pennsylvania).cite web|url = http://www.miltonhistory.org/tng/getperson.php?personID=I88&tree=miltonfamilies | title = Frederic Antes GODCHARLES: 1872 - 1944 |publisher = Milton Families | accessdate = 2008-02-21] He married Mary Walls Barber (1880 - 1952) in Washington D.C. on June 15 1904. They had no children.

Godcharles was an avid trap shooter and placed fourth in a professional-amateur shoot.cite news|title = Hill and Bombay Lead in Trap Shoot |publisher = The New York Times |date = July 17 1927 | page = S3] He and his wife moved to Maryland after his term as Director of the Pennsylvania State Library and Museum, and died in Leonardtown there after a brief illness, aged 72.

Public service

Godcharles was a member of the U.S. Army in the Spanish-American War in 1898. He served in the Army again during the First World War,cite web | url=http://politicalgraveyard.com/bio/godard-goder.html#S4U0FYKOV | title = Index to Politicians: Godard to Goder |publisher = The Political Graveyard | accessdate = 2008-02-21] and rose to the rank of captain. [cite web |url=http://www.phmc.state.pa.us/BAH/DAM/rg/sd/r13sd4.htm | title = RG-13: Records of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission | accessdate = 2008-02-21 | publisher = Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission]

Godcharles was a member of the Republican Party and served in both houses of the Pennsylvania General Assembly. Godcharles represented Northumberland County in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in 1901 and 1902, [cite web|url = http://staffweb.wilkes.edu/harold.cox/legis/114H.pdf |title = Pennsylvania House of Representatives - 1901 -1902 |publisher = Harold Cox, Wilkes University |accessdate=2008-02-22 ] and represented Union County in the Pennsylvania State Senate from 1905 to 1908. [cite web|url = http://staffweb.wilkes.edu/harold.cox/legis/116S.pdf |title = Pennsylvania Senate: 1905 - 1906 and cite web|url = http://staffweb.wilkes.edu/harold.cox/legis/116S.pdf |title = Pennsylvania Senate: 1907 - 1908 |publisher = Harold Cox, Wilkes University |accessdate=2008-02-22 ] Interestingly, other sources differ as to his service in the General Assembly: his obituary in the "New York Times" said he served in the "General Assembly in 1900 and the Pennsylvania Senate from 1904 to 1908",cite news |title= Frederic A. Godcharles: Ex-Director of Pennsylvania Library, a Historian |work= Obituary |publisher= New York Times |date= December 31 1944 |page =25 ] while "The Political Graveyard" says he was a member of the "Pennsylvania state senate, 1905-08" and a member of the Pennsylvania delegation to the 1908 Republican National Convention, and the book "Union County, Pennsylvania: A Celebration of History" lists him as representing Union County, Pennsylvania in the State Senate from 1909 to 1912. [cite book | last = Snyder | first = Charles McCool | title = Union County, Pennsylvania: A Celebration of History | publisher = The Pennsylvania State University Press | date = 2000 | id = ISBN 0917127137 | url = http://books.google.com/books?id=-yGYCsElEsMC&pg=PA329&lpg=PA329&dq=%22frederic+a+godcharles%22&source=web&ots=ZPQul6SkIJ&sig=g6yFm9KJ5yBjJ0ym0kzMfYWUP8w |accessdate=2008-02-22 ] In 1920 Godcharles was living in Milton, Pennsylvania working as the editor of a weekly newspaper. He was an unsuccessful candidate for the Republican nomination for the office of Secretary of Internal Affairs in 1926, [cite news |title= Pepper Blames "Organization" |publisher= New York Times |date= May 20 1926 |page =2 ] and was mentioned as a probable nominee for the same office in 1930. [cite news |title= Vare to Open Fight Today Despite Plea |publisher= New York Times |date= February 19 1930 |page =13 ]

tate librarian and museum director

Godcharles served as Pennsylvania State Librarian and Director of the State Museum of Pennsylvania from 1927 to 1931. [cite web| url=http://www.statelibrary.state.pa.us/libraries/cwp/view.asp?a=2&Q=40547 | title = Roster of State Librarians | publisher = Pennsylvania Department of Education | |accessdate=2008-02-22 ] cite book|first = Eric Ledell |last = Smith |url=http://www.statemuseumpa.org/Assets/Images/100-years%20images/100years.pdf |title = The Pennsylvania State Museum: A Centennial History 1905 - 2005 |publisher = Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission |location = Harrisburg, Pennsylvania |date = 2005 | accessdate=2008-02-22 ] He had numerous duties outside the state library and museum. For example, in 1928 Godcharles presided at the dedication of a new museum at the birthpalce of Henry Clay Frick in Scottdale, Pennsylvania. [cite news |title= Frick Museum Dedicated |publisher= New York Times |date= June 18 1928 |page =18 ] He served as the official representative for Pennsylvania Governor John S. Fisher and featured speaker at a Flag Day parade and ceremony in New York City in 1929. [cite news |title= Military Display Marks Flag Day |publisher= New York Times |date= June 15 1929 |page =8 ] In 1930 Godcharles was a founding member of the "Society for Pennsylvania Archeology" (SPA) and was elected to its executive board.

The State Museum of Pennsylvania had been founded in 1905, and at the time of his appointment the state librarian was also director of the museum. Godcharles wrote in 1927 that "the Museum was at a standstill. Nothing of importance had been done in this division, nor anything of value added for some years. He sought extra funding and received a budget increase to increase the museum staff to a total of nine, however the state legislature hampered his efforts by requiring over $11,000 of the budget be kept as a reserve fund instead. It also did not appropriate any additional funds to acquire more "specimens and artifacts". Despite these limitations, 1928 was a record-breaking year for school visits at the museum. In 1929 there were over 20,000 total visitors to the museum and the American Association of Museums ranked it as one of the top sixteen in the United States.

Godcharles' tenure coincided with the beginning of the Great Depression and the state library and museum budget were cut repeatedly as a result. These and staff cuts led him to write "We have not 'sold' our enterprise to the Legislature or to others who hold the public purse strings. They do appreciate the educational importance of the work proposed. It is for us to educate them." He resigned in 1931, but remained active in the SPA, serving as its president in 1933. In 1936 he was elected president of the Eastern States Archeological Foundation and announced a Works Progress Administration project to restore a 1643 Swedish settlement on Tinicum Island near Chester on behalf of the Historical Commission of Pennsylvania, a precursor to the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. [cite news|title = WPA to Restore Colony |publisher = The New York Times |date = October 18 1936 | page = N7]

Author

Godcharles was the author of many works on Pennsylvania history and was awarded a D. Litt. His first book was "Freemasonry in Northumberland & Snyder Counties, Pennsylvania" (1911, two volumes). [cite web|url = http://www.pagrandlodge.org/mlam/clc/pennamas.html |title = Circulating Library Catalogue: Freemasonry In Pennsylvania |publisher = The Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of Pennsylvania |accessdate=2008-02-26] His next book grew out of series of newspaper columns he wrote on Pennsylvania history, the self-published "Daily Stories of Pennsylvania: Prepared for Publication in the Leading Daily Newspapers of the State" (1924). [cite book| title= Daily Stories of Pennsylvania: Prepared for Publication in the Leading Daily Newspapers of the State |first = Frederic Antes |last = Godcharles |publisher = self-published |location = Milton, Pennsylvania |year = 1924 |url = http://books.google.com/books?id=zXWgGQAACAAJ&dq=Godcharles |accessdate = 2008-02-25] The "New York Times" review noted it had "a story for each day of the year", many of them originally "widely published in Pennsylvania newspapers on the anniversary of the event or person concerned", and that "Mr. Godcharles succeeds admirably in choosing and bringing out essential facts and relating it all in a readable style." [cite news|title = Brief Reviews: Pennsylvania Days |publisher = The New York Times |date = December 28 1924 | page = BR31]

In 1933 his five-volume "Pennsylvania: Political, Governmental, Military and Civil" was published, with volumes on Government (I), Political (II), Military (III), Physical (IV), and Biographical (V) history. [cite book| title= Pennsylvania: Political, Governmental, Military and Civil |first = Frederic Antes |last = Godcharles |publisher = American Historical Society |location = New York |year = 1933 |url = http://books.google.com/books?id=VBaNGQAACAAJ&dq=Pennsylvania:+Political,+Governmental,+Military+and+Civil+Godcharles |accessdate = 2008-02-25] In 1944 the four-volume "Chronicles of Central Pennsylvania" was published.cite book| title= Chronicles of Central Pennsylvania |first = Frederic Antes |last = Godcharles |publisher = Lewis Historical Publishing Company |location = New York |year = 1944 |url = http://collection1.libraries.psu.edu/cdm4/document.php?CISOROOT=/digitalbks2&CISOPTR=10777&REC=1 |accessdate = 2008-02-25] He was an editor of an index to the thirty-two volume "Encyclopedia of Pennsylvania Biography". [cite book| title= Index to the Encyclopedia of Pennsylvania Biography, Volumes I-XXXII |first = Frederic Antes |last = Godcharles |coauthors = Stock, Walter D. |publisher = Clearfield |location = Clearfield, Pennsylvania |year = 2000 |id = ISBN 0806346574 |url = http://books.google.com/books?id=ntNNAAAACAAJ&dq=Godcharles |accessdate = 2008-02-25]

ee also

References

Persondata
NAME=Frederic A. Godcharles
ALTERNATIVE NAMES= Fred Godcharles
SHORT DESCRIPTION=American author, historian, government official, soldier
DATE OF BIRTH= June 3 1872
PLACE OF BIRTH=Northumberland, Pennsylvania (United States)
DATE OF DEATH= December 30 1944)
PLACE OF DEATH=Leonardtown, Maryland