Ohio History Journal

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THE HAYES BEQUESTS

THE HAYES BEQUESTS.

 

When future generations shall make their pilgrimages to

the historic scenes of Fremont, Ohio, they will ask "What means

this beautiful park with its winding roads through a forest of

gigantic trees, and this artistic building of stone at its northern

entrance, with this commodious, but simple brick mansion in

the background; and what is this magnificent collection of build-

ing in a spacious field outside, approached by well-worn roads

and pathways?" The answer will be, "This park is Spiegel

Grove, an area of twenty-five acres, still covered with the orig-

inal forest except where spaces have been cleared for the home

of General Rutherford B. Hayes, one of the most eminent presi-

dents of the United States. This winding roadway, with its

depression where crossing a brooklet, is a portion of the original

Indian trail from the Great Lakes to the Ohio River, trod for

ages by countless feet of the aboriginal inhabitants of America,

and followed in 1813 by General Harrison's army on its road to

victory in the battle of the Thames. This "poem in stone" is a

monument to President Hayes, erected by the Ohio State Arch-

aeological and Historical Society with funds furnished by the

Legislature, and holding the great library of Americana col-

lected by President Hayes, together with his military and po-

litical correspondence, and a general collection of family and his-

toric relics-altogether, "a thing of beauty and a joy forever."

Each of the four entrances to the park has a character of

its own. The main entrance from the street at the northeast,

through a gateway adorned by massive walls of granitic bowlders

from Canada, transported to the near vicinity thousands of

years ago by the slow-moving ice of the glacial period, was

erected by Colonel Webb C. Hayes, the dutiful son of President

Hayes; as was also the northwestern entrance, between gigantic

cannon standing on end, and flanked by massive granitic walls

constructed of glacial bowlders and bearing inscriptions in mem-

ory of the officers and soldiers from the vicinity who took part

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