Carnegie's Maid

by Marie Benedict

This poor house would have been my home but for the death of the other Clara Kelley.

For whom was I crying? For all the immigrants like the Lambs, who came to America seeking a better life but settled instead for a soot-infested home and dangerous work in the mills and gave thanks for it? For the education Dad bestowed on me that held no purpose other than to sharpen my wits to become the perfect servant?

From this experience, I learned that when you’ve gone astray, a helping hand will always emerge from the darkness.”

“Perhaps another poem by Robert Burns will lift your mood,” the man said. Turning away from the window, I looked at him. I realized that the stranger was the elder Mr. Carnegie.

I started my career in the railway business—work I continue to this day—and it returns me to my roots to take the train home at the end of a workday.” “What a noble notion, Mr. Carnegie.” “There’s nothing noble about me, Miss Kelley. We Carnegies are simple folk from a simple Scottish town.”

“Many poets beguile, Mr. Carnegie, but I do have a particular fondness for Mrs. Elizabeth Barrett Browning.”

if I were pressed to pick one, I’d select Aurora Leigh,

“That’s a belief I share as well. President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation was an inspiration indeed. It moved me to write an antislavery pamphlet of my own.”

“So you are an ardent supporter of the Union Army cause, sir?”

“I am indeed, Miss Kelley.” He puffed up a bit. “At the outset of the war, I served Assistant Secretary of War Scott ...

was his assistant in charge of the Transportation Department, ensuring that the military railroads and te...

“Well, Mr. Carnegie, I do not think I have ever witnessed a Reynolds Street man walking side by side down the boulevard in deep conversation with a maid. I almost didn’t recognize you because of it.”

“Any word from the war?” Mrs. Jones responded. “My husband believes that the appointment of Ulysses S. Grant to general-in-chief of the Union Army by President Lincoln will bode well for our forces.

“The talk has turned to the war.”

“That’s got to be a tough subject right now.” “What do you mean, ‘right now’?” “Well, the elder Mr. Carnegie was just drafted into the Union Army.”

“No, miss. The government created the Enrollment Act so that rich folk could avoid fighting. Perfectly legal.”

“It is my intention, Miss Kelley, that this book inhabit your room. You are used to a world larger than the one in which you now serve my mother. I insist that you broaden it, beginning with this gift. As Mrs. Barrett Browning says, ‘The world of books is still the world.’”

The heavy chatelaine, with its full complement of instruments

tend ladies’ hair and attire as well as smelling salts should their corsets induce fainting, an occurrence that happened with surprising frequency, had become my constant companion.

I backed quietly out of the kitchen, trying to hide the tears that sprung up against my will. I belonged nowhere in this house. Not with the Carnegies. Not with the other servants. Even my own family members who resided in this city felt foreign to me.

Would I always live in this nether space of service? Always present but never seen,

“You are a lady, Miss Kelley. No other woman of my acquaintance is as graceful in her demeanor or as elegant in her thinking.”

Any vestige of discomfort between us dissolved, and I realized that his sincerity about his struggle opened a door between us. For a moment, I felt like I belonged with him.

An investment is the opportunity to purchase ownership shares in a company. It gives you a piece of the company, if you like. When the company does well, the part owner receives a monetary payment called a dividend.” He laughed. “Money for doing nothing. It’s incredible.”

“It’s much more than a story, Miss Kelley. I cannot describe to you the impact that library had on my life and my success. It quite literally made me who I am today.”

I began my investigation and tried to answer that long-standing historical question with a research-based fictional story.

So, in their honor, I created Clara Kelley and placed her into the very real historical tale of Andrew Carnegie—to give voice to the otherwise silent stories of the thousands of immigrants who built our country.