Week 18: George T. Peabody, Chandler Chamber of Commerce Founder
When Dr. Alexander J. Chandler founded the town that bears his name, he didn’t trust in luck or mere word of mouth to convince people to come here to buy land. He hired men to promote his new town. One of the first men he called upon to publicize the new town of Chandler was George T. Peabody.
George Peabody was born in Sacramento in 1879, and when the time came to enroll in college he chose to attend the Biltmore School of Forestry in Ashville, North Carolina. Upon graduation, Peabody moved to Tennessee, where he worked under Gifford Pinchot, the father of the US Forestry Service. From there, his career path took him all over the Southwest and across the Pacific Ocean. A short list of his jobs during that time would include grocer, ship’s first mate, chief amalgamator, and prospector. His travels took him to Baja, the Coachella Valley, Newport Beach, and Mindanao in the Philippines.
Dr. Chandler hired the 32 year old Peabody in 1912 to help him publicize his new town and promote its agricultural prospects. Peabody bought a 20 acre ranch, built a home, and jumped into the business of promoting Chandler and all it had to offer.
The third edition of the Chandler Arizonan newspaper, printed on June 7, 1912, ran a cover story featuring Peabody’s optimistic view of Chandler’s future. Speaking with a reporter from the paper, Peabody raved about the alfalfa, cantaloupes, corn, garlic, onions and “all kinds of garden truck and it is all first class.” He compared Chandler land to land in Southern California, proclaiming it to be better than could be found in California at half the price. He concluded: “No one of intelligence can come to Chandler and observe the conditions of climate, soil and water and fail to be impressed that this section is bound to be very thickly settled in a very few years with one of the most progressive and enlightened communities in the republic.” Such flowery rhetoric was common as Peabody promoted Chandler not just in the local newspaper, but in his travels around the country.
In addition to promoting Chandler far and wide and growing numerous crops on his farm, Peabody was the founder and first secretary of the Chandler Chamber of Commerce. He also found time to start a boys’ cotton club, which is credited with being the first 4-H club in Arizona.
In September of 1912, Peabody attempted to resign his position with the Chamber after three months. His resignation caused a storm of protestations in the community, and it was declined. Dr. Chandler said, “It will not do to let such a man go. We all need his efforts to build up the community.” As a result, Peabody stayed on as Secretary of the Chamber for another year. In 1913, he finally did resign, but only to take up a similar job in Dr. Chandler’s Chandler Improvement Company. Peabody remained in Chandler, promoting it locally and abroad, until 1915, when he moved his family to Newport Beach.
George Peabody met an early yet heroic end in 1942 in the Philippines during World War II. He and his brother had purchased a ranch on Mindanao, where they were when the Japanese invaded the island. George’s brother was captured and died in a prisoner of war camp. George escaped into the jungle, and took notes on Japanese military movements which he passed on to the US military. The Japanese put a $15,000 bounty on Peabody’s head, and he was eventually captured and killed. It is suspected that one of the ranch hands who had escaped with him into the jungle turned him over for the bounty.
Peabody’s work in Chandler helped to lay the solid commercial and agricultural roots from which the city grew.