Jason C. Somerville Trust
Bethlehem, New Hampshire
(original newspaper article dated 1972)
"Every graduate of the Bethlehem High School will share equally the income from my estate in order to further his or her education. This money will be available to everyone who gets his diploma, whether the marks are 99 or just a passing mark. It is for this purpose that I have slaved and denied myself all luxuries and often the merest necessities to establish the foundation. This is my way of showing a heart-felt gratitude for what Bethlehem, New Hampshire has done for me. Without its bracing air and the kindness of the friends I have made here, I would have been under six feet of sod more than 40 years ago."
Who is it that makes such an aspiring statement? Some public spirited tycoon? A retired and penchant capitalist? A foresighted speculator? None of these. It is the picturesquely-dressed handy man of Bethlehem, Jason Crawford Somerville, cottage-closer for summer residents, a woodchopper, grasscutter and gardener. No task is too menial for him to tackle - pulling weeds, whitewashing the cellar, bringing wood for the kitchen stove. These, plus his home-patched clothing, constitute the disguise for the possession of a highly liquid, carefully invested capital in excess of $100,000. Known to all merely as "Jason," his infectious laugh and good humor and his humble, if not shabby, clothing are well calculated to conceal his business acumen.
Born in St. Louis, Missouri, December 5, 1889, Somerville traveled in his youth to many places trying to find a place where he would be free from the scourge of hay fever. He had an asthma condition and also bronchial difficulties.
"I tried the coast of Maine and Nova Scotia, and there I met friends who told me of the White Mountains in New Hampshire," said Somerville. "A doctor in New York also advised me to try the White Mountains. So spent my first summer in Bethlehem at Turner's Tavern in 1904.
Afterwards, Somerville bought the farm where St. Mary's School is now located. He lived out of doors all the time and, according to his own analysis, "my health improved a great deal."
"As time went on," said Somerville, "I took complete charge of the farm, working in the woods, picking up firewood which I hauled to Littleton during the First World War, and sold it, as coal was very hard to get. We also had 1000 maple sugar trees and tapped more of them every year with a modern evaporator bucket. As my father's health was failing, we realized that we could not keep the farm, and through good luck we found a Mr. Beck who bought our place and later sold it to St. Mary's."
"I then went to Quincy, Massachusetts and became a ship builder. At this time I bought a building lot on Pinewood Avenue in Bethlehem and put up a bungalow, after my father's death in 1915. Mother and I lived here and in the winters went, with my sister, to Long Island. My sister ran a baby chick farm, and I loaned her money to improve the place, which was paid back to me at her death in 1935."
As a young man, his father gave him $1,000 to invest in Kodak stock. Through shrewd investments, Jason built on his modest beginning until at the time of his death it had grown to $1,160,000. The original trust was set up in 1954.
Under Somerville's will, Malcolm Stevenson, well-known proprietor of MacEddie's Restaurant, is administrator. The trust fund at present consists of 80 shares of General Motors common stock; 960 shares of Eastman Kodak stock; 40 shares of American Tobacco Co.; 30 shares of New England Tel and Tel; $1,000 U.S. Government Bond; $640 cash in bank; a secured note for $1,300; a mortgage note originally $20,000 reduced to $15,000; a mortgage for $2,000 and a note for $2,000.
It is calculated that the interest from these investments will bring in between $2,000 and $3,000 annually and this will be divided among the graduates of the high school equally, but Mr. Somerville specifies that they shall be children of bona fide residents of Bethlehem. The students' parents must have resided in Bethlehem throughout the four years of their child's high school education. He does not restrict the education these graduates are to pursue.
If there are no graduates in the Bethlehem high school in any particular year, the income of the trust fund will remain undistributed and accumulate so that when there are graduates, they will get that much larger sum.
Somerville was a member of the Bethlehem Grange since 1930, and he was a committeeman for the local Boy Scouts. He belonged to the Methodist Church. He was a stamp collector and has a life-long membership in the Kiwi Exchange Club of Australia. He had over 8000 stamps in his collection from all over the world, and also had a coin collection.
Mr. Somerville's sole relation is his brother, E.L. Somerville, a prominent realtor of Minneapolis, Minnesota, who is 75 years old and independently wealthy.
Somerville married Clara Meyers Elliot in June, 1938 in Bethlehem with Judge and Mrs. Elmer Harrington as their attendants. They went to Havana, Cuba for their honeymoon. Mrs. Somerville died in November, 1946 in Littleton and is buried in her hometown of Shelton, Connecticut.
"I am now content to spend the remaining years of my life in Bethlehem," said Somerville. "It is the finest spot on earth. I have lived here 50 years, and I haven't been in a doctor's office in over 40 years."
Jason died on December 1, 1972 at the age of 81. During the prior 15 years before his death, Somerville had also befriended the community with the donation of a fire truck and ambulance. These contributions were all made without fanfare, as were all of his financial gifts.