SANTA BARBARA d'OESTE, BRAZIL
Santa Bárbara d'Oeste is a municipality in the State of São Paulo in Brazil. It is part of the Me-tropolitan Region of Campinas. It lies about 138 kilometres (86 mi) northwest of the State capital. It occupies an area of 272.2 square kilometres (105.1 sq mi), of which 43.1 square kilometres (16.6 sq mi) is urban. In 2010, the population was estimated at 180,148 by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, making it the 43rd most populous city in São Paulo and the sixth largest in the metropolitan region of Campinas.
Santa Bárbara d'Oeste has an annual average temperature of 22.2 °C (72.0 °F), and the original vegetation of the area predominates. The city has an urbanization rate of 98.73%. As of 2009, there were 44 medical institutions in the city, and its human development index (HDI) is rated as 0.819 in relation to the rest of the state.
Founded on 4 December 1818, when the Church was built, the city was named in honor of its patron saint, Santa Barbara, it was originally part of Piracicaba. It separated from Piracicaba in 1900. Since Margaret Grace Martins donated the land for the construction of the townsite, she is considered the founder, making the city the first and only Brazilian city founded by a woman.[5] The city is also the birthplace of the automobile industry in Brazil, being where the first car was produced in Brazil. Today, Santa Bárbara d'Oeste is subdivided into slightly more than 130 districts.
Santa Bárbara d'Oeste has an important cultural tradition, ranging from craft and theater, to music and sports. American immigration has brought various influences on both cultural and tourist events and attractions, in-cluding the Party of Immigration, and the Fair of Nations. In the midst of the city is a cemetery, best known as the Graveyard of the Americans. It is administered by the Fraternity of American Descendants, who regularly hold meetings and events aimed at preserving the traditions and customs of American immigrants.
Origins
Until around 1810, the area where the city of Santa Bárbara d'Oeste now stands was virgin forest. That year, a road was constructed, linking the parish of Santo Antônio de Piracicaba to Villa de San Carlos de Campinas. With these improvements, the area turned into a good agricultural region due to its plentiful water sources, leading to the region being broken into allotments and put up for sale.
Margaret Grace Martins, widow of sergeant major Francisco de Paula Martins, bought one of those allotments, measuring two leagues square, whose boundaries were the Piracicaba river to the north and by Quilombo Creek to the northeast. On the site, she founded a sugar plantation, putting her son, Captain Manoel Francisco Grace Martins, in charge of administering the property. In 1818, she initiated the formation of a settlement and the construction of a chapel, dedicated to Saint Barbara. Martins donated the lands the city would develop on, making the town the first and only Brazilian city founded by a woman. The chapel was dedicated on 4 December 1818, now considered to be the date of the town's founding.
As the area was settled, other farmers settled in and around the city. On 16 April 1839, the municipality rose to the position of Capela Curada de Santa Bárbara of Toledos[5] (the name "Toledos" was added in reference to the stream that crossed the city, named Ribeirao of Toledos), and became the Fourth District of Vila Nova da Con-stituição (now the city of Piracicaba).
Years later, the district of Santa Barbara was created by Provincial Law Number 9, on 18 February 1842, in addition, the chapel was elevated from a capela curada, an official title given by the Catholic Church, to a freguesia. It was then transferred on 23 January 1844, to become part of the municipality of Campinas, followed by a further transfer, by Provincial Law Number 12 on 2 March 1846, back to the Municipality of Piracicaba. Finally, by Provincial Law No. 2, on 15 June 1869 the municipality of Santa Barbara was officially created, parting from Piracicaba. The Municipality has always been made up of a single district. The town was officially renamed Santa Bárbara d'Oeste on 30 November 1944.
20th and 21st centuries
The sugar industry boomed in the late 19th century due to the increase in the demand for sugar. At the time, large sugar mills were constructed in the city, such as the Plant de Cillo Santa Bárbara (now disabled). In the 1920s several industries emerged, including textiles and agricultural implements. Over the years, other ind-ustries moved into the area. Eventually, on 5 September 1956, the first Brazilian car, the Romi-Isetta, was released.
During the 1960s and 1970s, with the rapid development of the nearby settlement of Americana, many people came looking for jobs and housing. Due to the close proximity of the two municipalities, the area between them was settled, creating a conurbation. Initially there was some confusion, since the boundaries of the two towns were not officially set. The problem was solved with the creation of the Avenida da Amizade, which cut through the region, fixing the boundary between the two towns. The population expansion not only brought development, but also problems to the region, since it drained public accounts. This precipitated years of economic stagnation.
Since the 2000s, due to both public and private investment, the city is reaching an economic and social balance, becoming increasingly competitive in the metropolitan region of Campinas. Legal incentives for businesses that invest in the city were created, and the expansion of the Rodovia dos Bandeirantes, whose route passes through the municipality, has brought new opportunities for development.
Today, Santa Bárbara is one of the major economic forces in the metropolitan region of Campinas, with a good quality of life. The city has a strong industrial character, and is home to companies such as Romi, Usina Furlan, Goodyear, Canatiba, Mazak, and Denso. The city boasts good leisure facilities such as the Tivoli, which opened in November 1998, and is one of the main shopping malls and meeting points in the city with almost 700,000 visitors every month. It serves the population of Santa Bárbara d'Oeste, Americana, Nova Odessa, Sumaré and Hortolândia, as well as the regions of Piracicaba and Limeira.
American immigration
After the end of the American Civil War, beginning in 1867, the region began to see immigration from the sou-thern United States, these immigrants were known as the Confederados. Along with their customs and cultures, the Americans brought new agricultural methods and techniques, contributing greatly to the advancement of agriculture in the region. The Americans also brought new religions into Brazil, and on 10 September 1871 the first Brazilian Baptist Church was established in Santa Bárbara.
The first Americans to arrive in the city were Colonel William Hutchinson Norris, a Civil War veteran and former Senator from the State of Alabama, and his son, who began to teach courses on cotton cultivation techniques to local farmers. Once they were established, they sent for the rest of their family, as well as other countrymen. American immigration was crucial to one of the main cultural events of the city: the annual meeting of the Fra-ternity of American Descendants. Many immigrants who came to Santa Bárbara d'Oeste achieved national prominence, such as Pérola Byington, a philanthropist and social activist born in the city.
Descendants of the immigrants
Santa Bárbara d'Oeste received an influx of immigrants from the Confederate States of America in the late 1860s (known as Confederados)
The first generation of Confederados remained an insular community, but by the third generation, most of the families had intermarried with native Brazilians or immigrants of other origins. As time went on, these des-cendants of the Confederados increasingly spoke the Portuguese language and identified themselves as Braz-ilians. As the area around Santa Bárbara d'Oeste and Americana turned increasingly to the production of sugar cane and the society became more mobile, the Confederados tended to migrate to cities. Today, only a few families still live on the original land owned by their ancestors. While the descendants of the original Confed-erados are scattered throughout Brazil, they maintain the headquarters of their descendant organization in Santa Bárbara d'Oeste.
Today's Confederados maintain affection for the Confederate flag even though they consider themselves com-pletely Brazilian. In Brazil, the Confederate flag does not have the historical association with slavery nor the corresponding stigma that exists in the United States. Many modern Confederados are of mixed-race and reflect the varied racial categories that make up Brazilian society in their physical appearance. Recently the Brazilian residents of Americana, now of primarily Italian descent, have removed the Confederate flag from the city's crest citing the fact that Confederados now make up only 10% of the city's population. In 1972, then Governor (and future President) Jimmy Carter of Georgia visited the city of Santa Bárbara d'Oeste and visited the grave of his wife Rosalyn's great-uncle, who was one of the original Confederados.
The center of Confederado culture is the Campo Cemetery, known as the Cemetery of the Americans, in Santa Bárbara d'Oeste, where most of the original Confederados from the region were buried. Most of the Confed-erados were Protestant, and the only cemetery in town was the Catholic cemetery, where non-Catholics were forbidden to be buried. In 1867, with the death of Beatrice Oliver, wife of Colonel Oliver, he buried her (as he would later bury his daughters) on a plot of land on his property. He earmarked an acre of his land so that American families could bury their dead. This became the Cemetery of the Americans. Today about 500 people are buried in the cemetery.
The chapel of Santa Bárbara d'Oeste
The descendants still foster a connection with their history through the Fraternity of American Descendants, an organization dedicated to preserving the unique mixed culture. In April, the organization holds an annual fes-tival, called the Festa Confederada in order to fund the Campo Cemetery. The festival is based on the culture of the old American south of the antebellum period. During the event there are typical American foods such as chicken fingers, burgers and baked corn; bands play jazz, dixieland, and traditional American folk songs, Con-federate flags are everywhere. American folk dances, specifically square dances, are the highlight of the event. Women dress the part, much like the character Scarlett O'Hara in the film, Gone with the Wind, and men in Confederate uniforms, boots and hats.
The cemetery has a recreation area where the fraternity holds its quarterly meetings, as well the Festa Confed-erada. The festival receives visitors from various parts of Brazil and the world; in 2006 the party attracted 1500 people, and has received such distinguished visitors as President Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalyn, as well as representatives of the Consulate and press agencies of the United States.
The Confederado community established a Museum of Immigration in Santa Bárbara d'Oeste preserving the history of Brazilian immigration and its benefits to the nation.
AMERICANA, BRAZIL
Americana (Portuguese pronunciation: [ameɾiˈkɐnɐ]) is a municipality (município) located in the Bra-zilian state of São Paulo. It is part of the Metropolitan Region of Campinas. The population is 229,322 (2015 est.) in an area of 133.91 km². The original settlement developed around the local railway station, founded in 1875, and the development of a cotton weaving factory in a nearby farm.
After 1866, several former Confederate citizens from the American Civil War settled in the region. Following the Civil War, slavery was abolished in the United States. In Brazil, however, slavery was still legal, making it a particularly attractive location to former Confederates, among whom was a former member of the Alabama State Senate, William Hutchinson Norris.
Around three hundred of the Confederados are members of the Fraternidade Descendência Americana (Fraternity of American Descendants). They meet quarterly at the Campo Cemetery. The city was known as Vila dos Americanos ("Village of the Americans") until 1904, when it belonged to the city of Santa Bárbara d'Oeste. It became a district in 1924 and a municipality in 1953.
Americana has several museums and tourist attractions, including the Pedagogic Historical Museum and the Contemporary Art Museum.
Rio Branco Esporte Clube, founded in 1913, is the football (soccer) club of the city. The team plays their home matches at Estádio Décio Vitta, which has a maximum capacity of 15,000 people.
The first records on the occupation of the lands where Americana now stands date from the late 18th century, when Domingos da Costa Machado I acquired a crown property between the municipalities of Vila Nova da Constituição (now Piracicaba) and Vila de São Carlos (now Campinas). In that area several estates were created, including Salto Grande, Machadinho, and Palmeiras.
A part of the property, which included the Machadinho estate, was sold by Domingos da Costa Machado II to Antônio Bueno Rangel. After Rangel's death, the estate was divided between his sons José and Basílio Bueno Rangel. A part of the property was afterwards sold to the captain of the Brazilian National Guard, Ignácio Corrêa Pacheco, who is considered the founder of Americana.
In 1866, the region started to be effectively populated with North-American immigrants from the defunct Confederate States of America, who were fleeing the aftermath of the American Civil War. The first immigrant to arrive was the lawyer and ex-state senator from Alabama, colonel William Hutchinson Norris. Norris in- stalled himself in lands near the seat of the Machadinho estate and the Quilombo River.
In 1867 the rest of his family arrived in Brazil, accompanied by other families from the Confederate States. These families settled in the region, bringing agricultural innovations and a kind of watermelon known as "Georgia's rattlesnake".
In 1875, almost a decade after the arrival of the Confederate immigrants in the region, the São Paulo Railways Company completed the expansion of its main railway to the city of Rio Claro. A station was built within the lands of the Machadinho estate. Despite belonging to the municipality of Campinas, the station was made to serve the estates in the municipality of Santa Bárbara d'Oeste, which was further away and had no station of its own.
The inauguration of the station counted the Emperor Dom Pedro II and Gaston, comte d'Eu among those who attended. The station was baptized "Santa Bárbara station". It is unknown exactly when the small village be-came the city of Americana, but it is known that this village was created by the time of the inauguration of the railway station, and that it was Ignácio Corrêa Pacheco who distributed the lands. Pacheco is thus considered the founder of the city. The municipal holiday of Americana is still August 27, the day when the railway
The small town formed around the station was named "Villa da Estação de Santa Bárbara" (Santa Bárbara Station Town). Its inhabitants consisted mainly of American families, and the town became thus popularly known as "Villa dos Americanos" (Town of the Americans).
The similarity between the official name of the town and the one of the neighboring municipality frequently caused serious communication problems, such as mail to Santa Bárbara Station often being shipped to the municipality of Santa Bárbara, ten kilometers away. In order to solve the problem, the railway company changed the name of the station in 1900 to "Estação de Villa Americana" (American Town Station). The name of the to in itself was then also officially changed to "Villa Americana" (American Town).
Carioba
In the 1890s, the farm known as Fazenda Salto Grande was purchased by the American Clement Willmot. Willmot established the first industry in Americana under the name Clement H. Willmot & Cia. In 1889, the factory was renamed Fábrica de Tecidos Carioba (Carioba Textile Factory). The name "Carioba" derives from the Tupi words for “white cloth”.
The factory ran into financial trouble after the abolition of slavery in 1888, and was purchased by German im-migrants who were members of the Müller family. The town of Carioba sprang up around the factory. German immigrants brought European-style urbanization to Carioba which is reflected in the style of its manors, fac-tories, hotels, and schools. Asphalt of tar was then first imported from Europe into Americana and utilized in road paving. The factory became the basis for the present-day Parque Industrial de Americana (Industrial Park of Americana).
On October 8, 1887, Joaquim Boer led a large group of Italian immigrants to Brazil. At Americana these Italian immigrants built their first church in 1896, dedicated to Saint Anthony of Padua, who eventually became the patron saint of the city. Born in Portugal, and called Saint Anthony of Lisbon there, the saint who is among the three June popular saints in the Catholic calendar (the others being Saints John the Baptist and Peter) is cel ebrated on June 13 with typical Junine countryside Brazilian food, prayers of the rosary, square dance, liquor, and bonfire.
Although immigrants got incentives to come to Brazil, especially after Emancipation when the government worried about seeing the country convert into a "black" nation, Italians who arrived before that didn't seem to have enjoyed special privileges. They often lived within the quarters designed for enslaved Africans who also suffered from lack of comfort and healthy conditions. Those immigrants worked as indentured servants, pay-ing off their debts to farmers who had paid for their tickets and were exploited, until the system was revamped and improved. Their descendants went on to become laborers, merchants, and other professionals.
Elihu Root
In 1906, two years after the creation of the Distrito de Paz de Villa Americana, the municipality received a visit from Elihu Root, United States Secretary of State, who had been attending and presiding the Pan-American Conferenceheld in Rio de Janeiro. After the conference, Root visited other parts of Brazil (such as Araras), and was informed of the existence of Americana. Root expressed interest in visiting the town, and was received at Americana with great emotion and affection. Hundreds of the residents received Root at nighttime, and because there was no electricity residents carried torches. Root was touched by their reception.[citation needed]
Autonomy
At the time of the beginning of the Getúlio Vargas dictatorship in Brazil in 1930, Americana was undergoing a profound economic transformation due to the rise of the textile industry there (the city was known as the “Rayon Capital”).
In 1932, during the administration of Mayor Antonio Zanaga, the revolt known as the Constitutionalist Rev-olution erupted against Vargas' regime. Americana sent volunteers to this revolution, and three of them, Jorge Jones, Fernando de Camargo and Aristeu Valente (from Nova Odessa, then part of Americana), perished dur-ing the struggle. Their sacrifice is remembered in Americana to this day.
In 1938, Mayor Zanaga changed the name of the town from Villa Americana to Americana, and due to the eco-nomic transformation of the town, the Comarca of Americana was created on December 31, 1953 during the administration of Mayor Jorge Arbix. In 1959, during the administration of Mayor Abrahim Abraham, Nova Odessa was made autonomous as its own municipality.
Between 1960 and 1970, the rapid development of Americana caused many people to relocate to search for work. Because of its size, there was not enough room to accommodate the new residents and many lived on the border of Santa Bárbara d'Oeste and Americana, creating what is known today as "Zona Leste de Santa Bár-bara" (East Santa Barbara).
The same also occurred because the majority of the population were unaware of the location where one mu-nicipality ended and where another began. The confusion came about because municipial limits were not yet fully determined. The problem was solved with the creation of a major Avenue, today called Avenida da Am-izade (Friendship Avenue) which became the dividing line.
At the same time as these developments, some problems were also created. The sudden increase in population caused an unbalance in the public accounts of the municípality, which was not ready for such a great number of new residents.
With the change in status from village to district, Americana developed rapidly. Its first police force was cre-ated, a sub prefecture was established, and three street lights – lit by kerosene and brought from Germany – were introduced. A school was also established, with the sending of the educator Silvino José de Oliveira to represent Americana’s interests with the state government. All of these developments led the local inhabitants to clamor for the status of a city.
In 1922, Villa Americana was one of the most progressive districts in Campinas with a population of 4,500. In this year, the fight to change its status to city began, led by Antonio Lobo and others, such as Lieutenant Antas de Abreu, Cícero Jones and Hermann Müller himself. Their efforts finally bore fruit: on November 12, 1924, the Municipality of Villa Americana was created,[8] comprising two districts: Villa Americana and Nova Od-essa, Nova Odesa later becoming its own municipality.
McINTYRE
Pérola Byington
Born: Pearl Ellis McIntyre
December 3, 1879
Santa Bárbara d'Oeste, São Paulo, Brazil
DiedNovember 6, 1963 (aged 83)
New York City, New York, U.S.
NationalityBrazilian–American
OccupationPhilanthropist
Spouse(s)Albert Jackson Byington
Pérola Ellis Byington (December 3, 1879 — 6 November 1963) was a Brazilian philanthropist and social activist. She was an advocate for mother and children's health assistance in Brazil during the first half of 20th century.
Born Pearl Ellis McIntyre, she was the daughter of Mary Elisabeth Ellis, and Robert Dickson Mc-Intyre, American Confederado immigrants established in Santa Bárbara d'Oeste. She adopted the Portuguese form of her name (Pérola) and in 1894 when Pérola was fourteen years old, she completed the preparation for the Normal School, but was prevented from entering because the minimum age requirement was sixteen years old. Then, she received private lessons, except Latin, which she took at a boys' school , where Pérola had to hide behind a folding screen so as not to attract the attention of the teacher and the boys. In 1897, Pérola took the entrance exams for the annex course of the Law Academy of São Paulo. She didn't passed the geography test and neither was well received by the academicians, who did not see with good eyes the opening of the course for women. In 1899, at the age of 19, Pérola finished the normal course. In 1901 she married the industrialist Albert Jackson Byington, — also a Confederado — in Brazil, with whom she had two children.
During the First World War, Byington was in the United States, where she was responsible for a sec-tion of the Red Cross. Already back to Brazil, she continued participating in philanthropic activities. From the 1930s, Byington alongside the teacher Maria Antonieta de Castro led a campaign to com-bat child mortality, called "Cruzada Pró-Infância", (Crusade for Childhood) a task which she held for 33 years.[3] She also dedicated herself to several other programs in defense of the disadvantaged, especially children, having been awarded several commendations of merit.
She died in 6 November 1963, in New York City, United States.
In her honor, a hospital dedicated to women's health in São Paulo is named after her.
Pérola, a municipality of the state of Paraná, was named after her; Alberto Byington Júnior, Pérola's son, was one of the partners of the Companhia Byington de Colonização Ltda., the company that bought land and settled in the region.
Byington is the great-grandmother of actress Bianca Byington and singer Olivia Byington. She is also the great-great-grandmother of the musician Gregório Duvivier.
The Avenida Paulista Series is about to be 2 years old, throughout this period we publish, weekly, the history of the mansions of the early twentieth century and the buildings that succeeded them. There have been 60 stories published so far, some of them so rich, they have won chapters.
There are still many other houses, but the information begins to rarify .... Therefore, we invite those who have information - researchers, descendants, curious - to participate in this unpublished survey on the avenue.
This week we will introduce the Albert Jackson family home and his wife, Pearl Byington, which was number 127 on the old number. Through a scholar, Marcos Cesar da Silva, whom we thanked, we had access to a photo of the house. During this week we researched the family, but there was no time to write the text, so we will give voice to what we find published.
The origin of the family is told below, by means of the opening section of an article by Rafael de Luna Freire entitled "From electricity generation to electric amusements: Alberto Byington Jr.'s business trajectory before the production of films" published in 2013, in the Historical Studies Journal of Rio de Janeiro.
"Mary Elizabeth Ellis, a professor at the Piracicaba College in Piracicaba (SP), founded by presby-terians in the southern United States, came from the Mississippi. Due to the War of Secession, she was brought to Brazil at the age of nine, going to live in the house of her grandfather, Henry Strong, already established as a farmer in Santa Bárbara d'Oeste, one of the main centers of American im-migration in the interior of São Paulo. In 1878, Mary married another immigrant, Robert Dickson MacIntyre, assuming her husband's surname (Mott, 2003: 22-3).
One of Mary and Robert's three daughters, Pearl Ellis MacIntyre (who later adopted the name of Pearl) was born on December 3, 1879, on the family farm. After living in several cities in the interior of São Paulo and Minas Gerais, he moved with his parents and his two sisters to the capital of São Paulo, where he studied at the Escola Normal Caetano de Campos. As a normalist, she was invited to work as a governess in the mansion of a wealthy family from São Paulo, but refused. By that time, he was already married to Albert, a young American immigrant (Mott, 2001: 219).
A native of Elmira, in the state of New York, Pearl Jackson's boyfriend, Albert Jackson Byington, was born on January 22, 1875. In 1893, at age 18, he worked for six months at the Chicago International Fair. "After this," according to testimony of Paulo Egydio Martins, "was hired to come to Argentina and settled in Buenos Aires with his friend Charles Williams. In 1895 he came from Buenos Aires to Rio de Janeiro, to work with the Canadian engineer James Mitchel, responsible for introducing the electric tram in the capital. Then he went to São Paulo to work at Light & Power "(Martins, 2007: 106).
From the manual work in the process of electrification of the cities of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo "up the post and pulling wire", in the words of Martins, began the career in Brazil of the American immigrant (later naturalized) and life Albert and Pearl, or rather, Alberto and Pérola, a couple of Brazilian citizens, as would often be emphasized.
The young couple settled in Sorocaba and in 1901 Alberto Byington acquired the Sorocaba Electric Company, which had a small thermal plant (De Lorenzo, 1993: 55-6). From Sorocaba he moved to Campinas, then the second most populous city in the state, where Alberto organized in 1904 the Cavalcante, Byington & Cia., That would give rise to the Company Campineira Luz e Força, probably associating itself with the local businessmen connected to the coffee . Gradually, the American continued in the strategy of buying and building small electric power plants in the region.
In that sense, in March 1913, Alberto Byington became the representative in Brazil of the newly created company The Southern Brazil Electric Company, Limited, linked to English capitals. During World War I, faced with the import restriction on coal, the main input of thermal generation, there was an even greater investment in Brazil in hydroelectric generation.
No wonder, Byington & Sundstrom, Alberto Byington was responsible for the complex construc-tion of the Hercílio Luz bridge, which connected the island of Santa Catarina, where Florianópolis is located, to the mainland, inaugurated in 1926, after four years of construction.
The expansion of Byington & Cia in the 1920s meant that the company had a branch in New York and in the main cities of Brazil: Rio, Sao Paulo, Santos, Porto Alegre, Curitiba, Salvador and Recife. "
Pearl Byington was one of the founders of the Crusade for Childhood, an important institution with the goal of reducing child mortality. Her granddaughter, Maria Elisa Botelho Byington, worried about the preservation of her grandmother's story and the Crusade, wrote the book "The gesture that saves - Pearl Byington and the Crusade for Childhood", edited in 2005 by Griffin Historical Projects and Editorials.
At the launch of the book, Maria Elisa, gave an interview to Paula Protazio Lacerda, from Época Magazine, and some excerpts about her grandmother published here.
"Pearl married Alberto J. Byington and had two children. In 1912 the family took their children to study in the United States. The war broke out and they could not return to Brazil. With that, my grand-mother started working at the American Red Cross raising funds.
The American Red Cross extended its services beyond the battlefields to care for the wounded. It instituted campaigns for the prevention of accidents at home and in transit, and pioneered rural visits to treat distant families in the city. Pearl may not have acted in all these areas, but acquired, say, by "osmosis" that work environment.
When he returned to Brazil, he worked in the Red Cross of São Paulo, with the founder, Maria Rennotte, his mother's companion in the Piracicabano College. Then, with all this experience, at the age of fifty, she inaugurated the Pro-Childhood Crusade together with Maria Antonieta de Castro, a health educator. Its purpose was to combat child mortality.
Pearl and her team had wonderful ideas. They held many campaigns, competitions and public events and suddenly the Crusade fell in the taste of the press. Several newspapers published all the campaigns of the Crusade. The last campaign, in 1963, shortly before the death of Pearl was on channel 9, TV Excelsior. It remained 27 hours in the air. I do not know how, but someone invented a toll and all the taxi drivers agreed to go through the toll that night. There were many actions in favor of the Cru-sade for Childhood.
Pearl received numerous awards and decorations. In São Paulo, Pérola Byington Hospital, in its honor, is dedicated to the care of women and a nucleus of professionalization for young people in situation of social vulnerability. In its hometown, Santa Bárbara d'Oeste, the avenue where the world's largest lathing industry is based, was named Avenida Pérola Byington.
Pérola, a municipality in the state of Paraná - formerly a district of the municipality of Xambrê - was named after him, on behalf of his son Alberto Byington Júnior, one of the partners of the Com-pany Byington de Colonização Ltda. , acquired land and colonized the region.
About the house of Paulista Avenue we know little, (maybe in the book have some information, which I bought, but not yet). What we have determined is that Pérola used her house for meetings and events of the Crusade for Childhood, in addition to collecting donations, as in this matter of 1930 on Children's Week, instituted in Brazil by Pérola.
The family appears at this address in telephone directories from 1920, but before that, 1917 the place appears on behalf of the family of Willian Speers, an Englishman from Newcastle, who came young to Brazil. He worked for 53 years at the São Paulo Railway Company, where he became superintendent and representative of the company in Brazil. In 1910, the house was in the name of his son JP Speers.
Until 1935 we find news of the actions of the Crusade on Paulista Avenue, then in the late 1940s beginning of the 50s, we found the address in the name of Mario Dias Castro, who lived in another Paulista house (The story can be read on this link ) and was brother of Ernesto Dias Castro, owner of the House of Roses.
In the area of Avenida Paulista, was built between 1973 and 75 the Pedro Biagi Building, in the current number 460 of Avenida Paulista, with a project by the architects Mauricio Kogan and Luis Andrade Mattos Dias.
The tower has 23 floors, with two modulated pillars of apparent concrete that emphasize its ver-ticality, and on the roof, the pillars end in hollowed arches. At the ground level there is an agency of Banco do Brasil, and on the lawn a work by Franz Weissmann (1911 - 2005), as indicated by a reader. Thank you!
The building was named after Pedro Biagi, who was an Italian immigrant, who became a well-known farmer and owner of sugar mills in the interior of São Paulo.
Pedro Biagi's anthology: "When I made my first brick, I did not think I would have a building with my name on the main street of the main city of Brazil!", Referring to the Paulista Avenue building in São Paulo. So much that it was walled in the building itself.
Michael Poirier Collection/National Archives Albert Jackson Byington, 40, was born on 22 January 1875 in Elmira, New York, United States. He immigrated to Brazil in 1895. He was a successful electrical engineer and imported the first electric motor to Brazil. On 4 July 1901 he married Pearl Ellis McIntyre. Pearl was born on 3 December 1879 in Santa Barbara d'Oeste, São Paulo, Brazil. Byington's ticket for Lusitania's last voyage was 46092 and he was in cabin B-26. On the day of the disaster, 7 May 1915, Byington was waiting for the elevator with Frederick Tootal, Lady Margaret Mackworth, and David Alfred Thomas when the torpedo hit. Here is what Tootal says about he and Byington in his 1915 testimony:
1160 (Q): What did you then do? (A): I was talking to a lady who was waiting for the lift when it happened, also to another gentleman [Byington] who was travelling with me, and we both took her by the arm and started going up the stairs, and we got on to the next deck, the "C" deck, on the portside. We then went aft with her to the companionway leading up to the boat deck, where there was a big crowd, and they were taking women and children first, and we put her on to that.
Tootal and Byington entered lifeboat #17, but the seamen lost control and the boat spilled. Both men survived. Albert Byington's survival in the Lusitania disaster was detailed in The New York Times, Monday, 10 May 1915, page 2, where he is mistakenly listed as a British subject.
The following is his account:
"It looks to me," he said, "as if the Lusitania officials imagined that she was too lucky to be torpedoed. Instead of running 15 or 18 knots an hour, she ought to have been pushed to the limit, as that, we all understood, was one means of safety upon which she depended. "Another point which I think out to be emphasized in that the Germans showed utter disregard for life by not giving time for the passengers to get off. "No ships of any kind were in sight for ten or fifteen miles. The Germans had it all their own way. They could easily have allowed the Lusi-tania's passengers ample time to get into lifeboats and row away before shooting their torp-edo. There was no opportunity for anything to happen to the submarine if she were delayed. It shows that they didn't care a rap about the loss of life in their murderous work." Mr. Byington jumped into a lifeboat which was filled with so many passengers that the ropes broke. As the boat fell into the water it capsized, and hearly all in it were drowned. Mr. Byington, who had a life preserver, swam to another boat. This later capsized. Then he got into another boat and helped to row it ashore.
Byington died around 1953 in São Paulo. His wife Pearl died 6 November 1963 in New York.