Ohio History Journal

DEDICATION OF MEMORIAL BUILDING

 

 

OVER THE GRANT COTTAGE AT STATE FAIR GROUNDS

 

The Grant Memorial Building enclosing the Grant

cottage at the State Fair Grounds was dedicated Sep-

tember 3, 1896.*   This ceremony had been planned

for the forenoon of that day, but a heavy rain made it

necessary to postpone the program until the afternoon

when fair weather greeted the large crowd assembled,

estimated at over four thousand people.

The program included addresses by Governor Bush-

nell and Henry T. Chittenden, through whose liberality

the Grant cottage was placed on the State Fair Grounds.

There were national airs by the Fourteenth Regiment

Band and military salutes by the regiment and a de-

tachment of Battery H of the Ohio Light Artillery.

Four companies of the regiment, Battery H and the

Boys' Brigade, at the entrance of the grounds met Gov-

ernor Bushnell, who was accompanied by Mrs. Bush-

nell, Private Secretary Rodgers, Henry T. Chittenden,

Secretary Miller of the State Board of Agriculture,

and members of the Governor's staff.    They were

escorted to the scene of the afternoon exercises.

Secretary Miller presided at the meeting. Reverend

W. R. Parsons invoked divine blessing, the band played

"America."   Henry T. Chittenden was then presented

and spoke in part as follows:

 

*The account of the dedication and the address of Mr. Chittenden

are based on reports in the Columbus Evening Dispatch of September 3,

1896, and the Ohio State Journal of the morning following.

Vol. XXXI-19.       (289)

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290      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications "We have gathered about this now consecrated spot to com- plete an affair that had its beginning some eight or, perhaps better, eighty years ago when this little cottage which we see here was reared upon the banks of the Ohio River to be the home of a simple pioneer of our great state. The son of that pioneer was the great soldier whose memory brings us here today. In entering upon this matter I shall lay aside all considerations of false mod- esty and speak of that which I know without regard to accusa-

tions of egotism or bad taste. The splendor of his renown whom in this day we recall makes unimportant any allusion to myself, and the matter of having a record for the satisfaction of those who look through this well-nigh imperishable glass in future years, calls upon me for a statement from me which might other- wise be inappropriate. "As to the history of this cottage, within whose second and last room, about seven by twelve feet in size, General Grant was indisputably born, it is that it was built by his father, Jesse Root

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Dedication of Memorial Building         291

Grant, upon the banks of the Ohio, in Clermont County, in the

year 1820, preparatory to his marriage. From this point it was

transferred to Cincinnati by boat in the year 1888; from that

point to these grounds on the southeastern part of which it was

set up in the same year, and from this last point, under the recom-

mendation of our distinguished governors, it has been transferred

by the patriotic State Board of Agriculture to this, its final resting

place, and covered with an enduring tasteful dome of glass and

steel as you now see it.

"Upon each removal extreme care, involving in every case

an expenditure of money far beyond the first cost of the build-

ing, has been exercised to transfer and replace every particle of

the building as it was found to be after Grant's glorious achieve-

ments had thrown a luster and sacredness about his every belong-

ing and made this humble house sacred to the American people.

Nothing was added and nothing taken away and it stands

today as it stood for more than half a century looking out upon

the glancing waters of the beautiful river.

"As to its authenticity and persistency of condition there is

no particle of doubt. When I visited it for the first time in com-

pany with Mr. William F. Burdell, of Columbus, Ohio, in the

interests of the board of directors of the Centennial of Ohio in

1888, the price demanded for it, $3,000, made it important that

we should be assured that it was in all respects what it purported

to be; and testimony was taken and affidavits were made which

left no doubt in our minds upon that point. Sketches were taken

of its actual condition, and that condition was accurately re-

produced before payment was made for its removal to these

grounds. It is interesting, it seems to me, to state that the picture

in General Grant's Autobiography shows a front just such as

this; that the physician, who was then the family doctor, has

visited the house since it stood in this enclosure and recognized

its familiar features; and that Mrs. Ulysses S. Grant wrote to me

a letter during the Centennial of 1888, which will be deposited

with the State Board of Agriculture, and which fully recognizes

all that we claim for the humble reminder of his birth, which I

here deliver once more to the care of the people of his native

state, to shine like a gem on her fair bosom, to endure while

liberty and union last, to be the mecca of millions of grateful,

pious pilgrims and to present to unborn generations the most im-

pressive and instructive of lessons for the conduct of life, es-

pecially when all its completed and accentuated by the erection

of his statue as he appeared on horseback in captaincy of a

million of unapproachable soldiery-a work of art whose erection

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292       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

is practically assured, as I am given to understand, by the liberality

of one of Ohio's most distinguished and honored citizens.

"You, whose most exalted and profitable business it is to

study and determine the effect of proper intermingling of blood

and characteristics, may well take time to consider in passing

of how great importance is the great diversity of nationalities

which has gone to the make-up of the population of nearly five

million which now enjoys the unsurpassed opportunities for

being, for development and for enjoyment presented by this first

state in the Union; and so considering you will soon come to the

conclusion, I think, that although contrasted with the shrewdness

and self-denial of the New Englander, the industry and persist-

ency of the German, the gallantry and politeness of the south-

erner, and the vivacity and humor of the Irishman, yet the cau-

tion, the insight and the thrift of the Scotchman qualifies him for

an equal hope in the contest for good things and renders probable

a more than ordinary success in the race which our admirable

institutions throw open and make attractive to all men.

"Of such stock was the baby who first complained of mortal

human ills in this little room on the 27th day of April, 1822. His

father's father had come to this country from Scotland in the

early part of the eighteenth century; had settled in Connecticut;

had served his country in the various wars, including that for in-

dependence, and had sent forth his son, Jesse Root Grant, to

make to blossom as the rose a little part of that rich wilderness

which was then more remote from his New England home than is

now any part of the globe from this smiling scene.

"Mrs. Grant, who was also of Scotch origin, was known to

her neighbors as a woman of unusual firmness and strength of

character, as a consistent and exemplary member of the Methodist

Church from her youth, a constant and devoted wife, a careful,

loving, watchful mother, the solace and support of her husband,

the adviser and guide of her children. 'It is not strange,' says the

biographer, 'that the offspring of such parentage should be virtu-

ous, honest and truthful. But if there is anything good in blood

or race, aided by judicious training and honorable example, such

a family should contain within itself a model of all that is ex-

cellent in woman or admirable in man.'

"I shall not abuse your patience by recounting the life or

eminent services of General Grant. His record is a possession

forever to the American people, familiar in their mouths as

household words. Suffice it to say that he was born in yonder

cottage; that he grew to manhood and almost to middle age in the

discharge of ordinary duties of life; that then as Washington and

his compeers watched over and made possible the birth of the

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Dedication of Memorial Building         293

 

Nation, as Jefferson and his associates at the end of the first

generation notified France and England and all the world that our

country had come of age and proposed to take care of itself; as

at the end of the second generation Jackson choked the serpent

of treason and sent it back to its lair, scotched but not killed, so

Grant and his followers at the end of the third generation saved

the Nation's life and sent her forward on a bounding career of

usefulness and glory. Would to God, fellow citizens, that he were

with us now to guide and assist us in saving the two better parts

of those inestimable treasures which the fathers pledged to the

sustaining of their proclamation of independence. He saved our

life, and would to God, I say, that at the beginning of our fourth

generation he were here to tell us how to save our fortunes and

our sacred honor. For it is curious to observe how imperative is

perpetual vigilance to the preservation of liberty, and how neces-

sary it has been thirty years after the Civil War to recur to the

principles and rules which the wise men of '76 laid down for our

protection from the dangers which they saw to be inherent in the

matter of self-government."

Music by the band followed the address. Governor

Bushnell was introduced and spoke briefly of the ap-

propriateness of the movement on the part of the citi-

zens to establish a monument to the memory of one of

the most honored sons of Ohio.      The Governor com-

mended Mr. Chittenden for his patriotic generosity in

placing the cottage on the grounds and the State Board

of Agriculture in later providing a shelter for it in order

that it might not be removed by the inclemency of the

weather.    He complimented the National Guard for

the part taken by them in the exercises and declared the

military career of General Grant the most glorious in

the history of the Nation.

The exercises concluded with the "Star Spangled

Banner" by the band and a national salute by the bat-

tery as the Stars and Stripes were raised above the

building.

William F. Burdell, who negotiated the purchase of

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294     Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications the Grant cottage in 1888 and is familiar with the sub- sequent history of this historic building, recalls dis- tinctly Mr. Chittenden's interest in its preservation. He says that Henry T. Chittenden was generally known as a business man and regarded as without much senti- ment, poetic, patriotic or otherwise. "This," says Mr. Burdell, "was a mistake. His was a character abound- ing in appreciation of the refinements of art and litera- ture and life. This did not appear to those who knew him casually and only in a business way." His presen- tation of the Grant cottage to the State of Ohio and his address at the dedication of the Memorial building on the State Fair Grounds are assuredly confirmations of Mr. Burdell's tribute.

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