Models

Anna and James Creeden

This entry is about Anna Goodman (a.k.a. von Gutmann) Creeden. She has been dead for many years. She was my paternal grandmother. 

Anna was a first-generation American, born in the 1890's to German-Dutch immigrants in Wilmington, Delaware. Her parents were born to wealth. They came from Amsterdam as part of an imported executive class of burgeoning American industry. Anna had a maid and a governess as a child. She summered at a luxury hotel in Atlantic City, where family and staff moved to escape the heat of Wilmington. 

Anna's father came from a Jewish banking family, which once owned the Bank of Dresden in the mid-19th century. They had converted to Catholicism in Prussia as a matter of practicality. The "von" in her German name was bestowed on the family by Otto von Bismarck, before the family sold the bank during the Franco-Prussian War to avoid losing their sons to Bismarck's ruthless military draft. The von Gutmanns fled to Amsterdam. 

Anna's mother is something of a family mystery. Anna told me that she had been the daughter of a wealthy mercantile family in Amsterdam. She said her parents' marriage had been arranged and consummated in Amsterdam prior to their coming to the U.S.. My great grandmother was consumptive, frail. The only ancient photograph of her I can recall was of a shadowy figure with a white veil, flowing from a wide hat. 

I am the product of Anna's adventurous love for my grandfather, James Andrew Creeden, a traveling salesman for the John Hancock Insurance Company, who drove into Wilmington on his Stanley Steamer on his way back from the Far West around 1917. James, a young widower with seven children back in Massachusetts who were in the care of his many siblings, swept Anna off her feet somewhat inappropriately for the time. They met on the street, despite the objections of Anna's chaperon/governess. James later had himself barred from Anna's family manse by a male servant when he boldly called on her without proper credentials or introductions. Anna eloped with James and left Wilmington in his Stanley Steamer. That was that. She was disowned by her family and never looked back. 

Anna's story, as she told it to me as a young boy, was a lesson in identity and courage in the face of prejudice and injustice. She was not histrionic in the telling. On the contrary, she told her exceptional history with thoughtful pauses and reminiscences. 

Anna faced an unpleasant welcome when she returned as James' bride to a small town north of Boston. She told me people stopped on the street and gawked at her as she and James drove through town. She heard mutterings about "The German" whom James had married. World War I was still raging in Europe. She got a cold shoulder from most of James' family, who felt burdened with the seven children from his first marriage. James' children did not warm to her either. But she stayed steadfast in her love for her traveling salesman.

They left the small town after a short visit. Back on the road after a brief check-in at John Hancock Headquarters in Boston. My grandfather was one of few Irish-Americans with a good job at that august Yankee institution. I remember a wonderful photograph of a John Hancock meeting in an auditorium at its headquarters. The auditorium was filled with hundreds of men in dark suits and one woman in a dark suit with a bright white blouse...Anna Goodman Creeden, apparently the only wife in attendance.

Anna and James were a team. They both traveled across the United States in the company automobile. My father, their oldest of three, was born in Albia, Iowa. Yes, Anna traveled while pregnant across unpaved prairies from cow town to cow town. They did this for several years before settling down outside of Boston.

The Anna I knew was always reading. Newspapers, novels, even the encyclopedia. She wasn't much of a cook or housekeeper. She and James lived in the same broken-down apartment in an old farmhouse until James died and she eventually went to a nursing home nearby. They were the two happiest people I have ever known. I spent many weekends with them when I was little. Those were the shining days of my early childhood. 

When I look at today's world and its values, I often have a short conversation in my head with these two mentors. Money, celebrity, materialism...the very things they found befuddling and amusing...now rule. While my grandfather was a devout Roman Catholic, my grandmother cared little for it. I never heard them argue over, or even discuss, religion. Their humblest of homes was a seat of mutual respect, intelligent conversation and selfless hospitality. 

Anna was perhaps the first person to instill humanist values in me by sharing her stories of her life. She gave me the ability to understand prejudice without hatred or violence. She had made peace with the injustices of her own life. She had no conceit in her accomplishments. She offered present and mindful consideration to anyone who came into her path. Her compassion was quiet and sustained. I feel very fortunate to have had her as a model for my humanist practice.