John Celivergos Zachos


John Celivergos Zachos was a physician, literary scholar, elocutionist, author, lecturer, inventor, and educational pioneer. He was an early proponent of equal education rights for African Americans and women. He advocated and expanded the Oratory systems of François Delsarte and James Rush.

Early life

John Celivergos Zachos, was born in Constantinople, the capital of the Ottoman Empire. His parents were Nicholas and Euphrosyne Zachos. They were from Athens. Nicholas Zachos was a general in the Greek army during the Greek War of Independence, where he was killed in battle in 1824.
Samuel Gridley Howe an American surgeon and Philhellene was also fighting for Greek independence. He brought John Celivergos Zachos along with other young Greek people back to the United States to educate them.
Namely traveling with Zachos and Howe was a young refuge who survived the Chios massacre named Christophoros P. Kastanes. In 1851, he wrote a book on his travels called The Greek Exile, Or, a Narrative of the Captivity and Escape of Christophorus Plato Castanis. This book includes John C. Zachos and other Greek children.

Education and Marriage

In 1830, John Celivergos Zachos was in the United States. He was placed in a Preliminary school in Amherst Massachusetts with Christophoros P. Kastanes and other greek children. In 1836, he enrolled at Kenyon College in Gambier Ohio. He graduated from the institution by 1840. As a young adult he was noted for fine speaking, he won prizes whenever he competed. He was the founder of the Society of Kenyon College.
He went off to study medicine at Miami University in Oxford Ohio, he graduated in the mid eighteen forties. When he finished his studies he moved to Cincinnati where he founded a Shakespearian Society. He married Harriet Tompkins Canfield Zachos on July 26, 1849.
Harriet Tompkins was born on January 15, 1824 to George Washington Canfield and Catherine A Clark. They had 6 children. Born between 1850 to 1865. His daughter Mary Helena Zachos became an American college professor and elocutionist.

Career & Later Life

In the eighteen fifties John C. Zachos was well known locally as an elocutionist, he traveled around Ohio lecturing about literature at various institutions. Zachos became associate dean at Antioch College which was in Yellow Springs Ohio. He worked under his close friend Horace Mann. Mann was also associated with Samuel Gridley Howe. At Antioch College Zachos read Shakespeare and lectured courses on the English Poets.
In 1862 he was the editor of the Ohio Journal. During the outbreak of the civil war Zachos served under General Rufus Saxton as a surgeon for the Union Army. He was stationed at Paris Island South Carolina.
During the civil war he was commissioned by the New York and Boston educational society to demonstrate that African Americans were capable of acquiring knowledge. He also educated them. He is noted for writing and reciting poetry to the freed slaves.

Ye sons of burning Afric's soil,

Lift up your hands of hardened toil

Your shouts from every hill recoil

Today your are free

After 2 years of service in the Civil War he traveled to Boston where he became a Unitarian Minister. He gave twelve lectures at the Lowell Institute. He began to gain notoriety as a Literature Professor in the east. For 3 years he was Professor of Public Speech and Literature at the Meadville Lombard Theological School. While at the Theological School he established another Literary Society.
American author, historian, and Unitarian minister Edward Everett Hale spoke very highly of John C. Zachos.
In 1871, now 51 he moved to New York City where he would stay until the time of his death. Peter Cooper and John C. Zachos became good friends.
Zachos influenced the foundation of Cooper Union. He taught literature and public speech. In 1876 he was Peter Cooper's first biographer. He was a Professor and Library Curator at Cooper Union.
On December 24th, 1875 he filed patent number 175892 for type writers and phenotypic notation application. The machine was a stenotype used for printing legible English text at a high speed. He obtained 10,000 dollars in investment capital for his invention.. He continued his advancement of oratory the next two decades.
He was a proponent of the Delsarte System of Oratory founded by François Delsarte. He also advocated the James Rush classic, The Philosophy of the Human Voice. James Rush was the son of Benjamin Rush.
Zachos lectures were very popular at Cooper Union. Namely on Tuesdays and Saturdays the crowd would exceed 100 to 200 people. Peter Cooper told William Cullen Bryant to personally observe Professor Zachos lecture. In "The Letters of William Cullen Bryant" Bryant called Zachos an oratory genius. Due to his poetry lectures he also gained the recognition of Ralph Waldo Emerson and James Russell Lowell.
His writing was not confined to literature. Zachos also wrote about philosophy, mathematics, science, metaphysics and other scientific branches. Under the pseudonym "Cadmus" Dr Zachos wrote about financial and economic subjects that were published in various New York City publications.
On January 7, 1896 Harriet Tompkins Zachos passed away. Roughly two years later on March 20, 1898, John Celivergos Zachos died. His Funeral was held at the Church of the Messiah. Among the many in attendance were his pallbearers S. Packard, Augustus D. Juilliard Former NYC mayor William Lafayette Strong and Union army brevet brigadier general Henry Lawrence Burnett. At the time of his death his residence was 113 west 84th street New York City.

Literary Works