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Jekyll Island Club
Description: The Jekyll Island Club began in 1886 and ended
in 1942. The club was for exclusive and
rich members only. If you had the money to afford a membership, you were one of
the wealthiest people in America at the time. The club consisted of members
like William Rockefeller, John D. Rockefeller's brother, JP Morgan, and “The Commodore”
Cornelius Vanderbilt. The club was used as a vacation home during the winter months
for most of its members. The members could either have a cottage on the island
or stay at the club hotel. When I say cottage, I don’t mean a two bedroom one
bath house like people in the mountains. I mean a multi-million dollar home
that has numerous rooms, bedrooms, bathrooms, and sometimes multiple kitchens.
Also, each member had at least two hundred servants at his or her beck and call
during anytime of the day.
Reflection: I found Millionaire’s Village to be a prideful
and stupid way to spend one’s money. Being rich is not a sin but using your
wealth to elevate yourself is a sin. I do not want to be remembered for how
much money and earthly possessions I had or didn’t have in life, I want to be
remembered as a man after God’s own heart just like King David. Now, I know
those men and women earned their money and I will as well but being prideful
with my money is no way I want to live my life. I do want to be wealthy and financially
stable for the rest of my life one day but I want to achieve this goal in a humble
manor. Humility is a lost art in American society today but humility is a great
attribute to your character if you possess it and one day I hope I do possess
humility.
Analysis: The Jekyll Island Club was key to helping America
in numerous ways. The members supported presidential candidates financially and
some candidates like President McKinley were elected. The members also
supported both World Wars financially. Without the Jekyll Island Club members,
which contained about 1/6 of the world’s money, support, President McKinley
might never have been elected President of the United States and America might
not exist today because we could have lost either world war without their support.
However, with all the good that the club members did, the club ended in 1942.
The reasons being is that many supported the war effort and couldn’t afford the
club fees, the stock market crash hurt most if not all of the members and the
Georgia governor in 1942 promised to make Jekyll Island a state park if he was
elected. Well, that governor did just that and Jekyll Island Club was no more.
Overall, Jekyll Island Club was and still is a perfect example of the division
of wealth in America because only the rich could afford luxury while the poor
were scavenging and struggling to find food to survive.
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