Ohio History Journal

Dedication of the Hayes Memorial.       475       THE MEMORIAL BUILDING. The Memorial Building a beautiful structure of classic archi- tecture, stands among the great trees to the north of the Hayes Residence, facing the entrance from Hayes Avenue. It is of light grey Ohio sandstone, from the Amherst quarries, and of ample proportions. Broad steps, between bronze pedestals bearing orna- mental lights, lead up to the pillared portico and great bronze doors. Upon entering the building the first thing that catches

the eye is the portrait of General Hayes painted by Carl Rake- mann, representing him at the age of 70; while the Huntington portrait painted for the White House, and copied by Rakemann, represents him at 60, and the Andrews portrait in the east library shows him at 40, in the uniform of a Brevet Major General of Volunteers. Thus standing in the center of the rotunda, one can see lifelike portraits of General Hayes at 40, 60 and 70 years of age. Over the portrait in the rotunda is the Hayes coat-of-

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476      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

arms from his Scottish ancestors, a falcon lighting on a rock,

which bears the inscription Recte. At the left of the portrait and

coat-of-arms, clustered in groups of three, are the flags of the

thirteen original Colonies, together with the State flags of Ver-

mont, Kentucky and Ohio, sixteen in all. The center of each

cluster is the flag of the United States, the stars of which show

the growth of the nation. In the cluster between the flags of

Delaware and Pennsylvania, the first of the Colonies to ratify

the Constitution, is the national flag adopted in 1777, 13 stripes

with 13 stars arranged in a circle. In the second cluster, between

the Colonial flags of New Jersey and Georgia, the third and

fourth States, is the flag adopted in 1795, of 15 stars and 15

stripes, two States having been admitted to the Union. In the

third cluster between Connecticut and Massachusetts, the national

flag has 13 stripes and 20 stars, five additional States having

been admitted in the interim, Congress providing in 1818 that

thereafter on the ₄th of July, following the admission of a new

State the national colors should consist of the original 13 stripes

with a star for each State of the Union. The 8th and last cluster

consists of the flags of Kentucky and Ohio, with the national

emblem of 13 stripes and 48 stars, the Union as it is today. The

three States whose flags have been added to the Colonial States

are very appropriately Vermont, from which State Rutherford

Hayes, the father, migrated to Ohio; Kentucky, the State from

which James Webb, the father of Mrs. Hayes, migrated to Ohio,

and Ohio the native State of the President and Mrs. Hayes.

Over the main entrance are the royal standards of the

countries which claimed possession of this territory prior to the

War of the Revolution, the royal standard of Spain, 1492-1670;

the royal standard of France, 1670-1760; and the royal standard

of Great Britain, 1760-1796, Great Britain still retaining until

1796 the actual possession of the military post at Detroit and its

sub-post on the Sandusky, at what is now known as Fort Stephen-

son in the center of Fremont, notwithstanding the treaty of

peace made in 1783 some thirteen years earlier.

Over the door leading to the east library is the flag of the

Governor of Ohio, General Hayes being the only Governor who

was thrice elected; while over the door which leads to the west

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Dedication of the Haves Memorial.         477 library is the flag of the President of the United States, General Hayes being the 19th President, from 1877-1881. In the center of the floor space is an interesting relic of the battleship Maine- her bronze hand-steering gear, covered with barnacles and colored by sea water, which makes a handsome receptacle for a stately fern. The rotunda is illuminated by frosted glass bulbs. In the

windows opposite the main entrance are handsome colored transparencies of the State House at Columbus, the Gov- ernor's corner of the State House, with the statue called "Ohio's Jewels" full length bronze figures of Generals Grant, Sherman and Sheridan; Chief Justice Chase, Secretary of War Stanton, and Presidents Hayes and Garfield; the north

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478      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

and south fronts of the White House at Washington; the

east and west fronts of the national capital; the inauguration

ceremonies of President Hayes in 1877, and his retirement on the

inauguration of President Garfield in 1881. Opposite the entrance

stands one of the Hayes ancestral clocks, a real grandfather's

clock, which was loaded into the family wagon when the parents

of President Hayes prepared to leave West Dummerston, Ver-

mont, for the forty-day journey to the new State of Ohio, in 1817.

The clock was so long that the tail board of the wagon could

not be put in place, so that temporarily the clock was left with

relatives in Vermont. On one side of the clock is a beautiful

rosewood folding secretary, purchased for Lincoln and used in

the cabinet room of the White House during the succeeding ad-

ministrations of Johnson, Grant, Hayes, Garfield, Arthur, Cleve-

land, Harrison, Cleveland and McKinley. It was sold with many

other interesting articles when the White House was renovated

in the early days of Roosevelt. This secretary and the office

chair were used by Colonel Hayes when a lad, as his father's

personal secretary, who purchased a chair to replace it when

leaving Washington. Another chair is a revolving chair used

by President Hayes when Governor of Ohio. The only chairs in

the east and west libraries were the ones used by President Grant,

President-elect Hayes, Chief Justice Waite and the Sergeant-at-

Arms of the U. S. Senate, during the inauguration of President

Hayes, on the east front of the Capitol, ₅th March, 1877.

On entering the west library one sees the beautiful full

length portraits of the President and Mrs. Hayes, painted for

the White House by Daniel Huntington, and copied by permis-

sion of President Wilson, by Carl Rakemann of Washington.

The magnificent library of Americana of President Hayes, the

largest owned by a private citizen at the time of his death in

1893, is stored in the east and west libraries in steel cases. In

the four corners of the west library are shown on figures, the

wedding dress, slippers, etc., of Lucy Ware Webb, when she

was married to Rutherford Birchard Hayes, 30th December,

1852, at Cincinnati, Ohio. The three remaining cases contain

dresses and wraps worn by her in the White House. The north

windows contain portraits of Sardis Birchard, the uncle of Presi-

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Dedication of the Hayes Memorial.         479

 

dent Hayes, who built the residence at Spiegel Grove for him

prior to the War for the Union, and portraits in uniform on

either side of Brevet Major-General Rutherford B. Hayes and

Brevet Major-General Ralph P. Buckland who were law part-

ners at Lower Sandusky, now Fremont, from General Hayes's

admission to the bar in 1845 until he removed to Cincinnati in

1849. The opposite window contains colored portraits of Ro-

dolphus Dickinson, the first Congressman from this town,

flanked on either side by portraits in uniform of Major-General

Harrison and Commodore Perry, the heroes of 1812. On the

upper windows are transparencies of "Old Whitey," the only

surviving war horse General Hayes brought home from the War

for the Union; and of Black Yauco, the fine coal-black war

horse of Colonel Hayes which still survives, a veteran of the

campaigns of Cuba, Porto Rico and the Philippines. This

horse has since been ridden only by Colonel Hayes at the second

inauguration and at the funeral obsequies of President McKinley

in 1901 and by Midshipman Hayes at the inauguration of Presi-

dent Taft in 1909.

In both the east and west libraries are two large mahogany

show cases for exhibition purposes, and in the middle of each

room is a beautiful mahogany table from Belgium, secured by

Colonel and Mrs. Hayes at Rotterdam in the early days of the

great European War. In the west library, one of the large cases

contains many of the personal pieces of wearing apparel worn

by Mrs. Hayes at the White House, and others covering the

period from her babyhood to her last public appearance at the

Centennial of the inauguration of George Washington in New

York in April, 1889. In the other case are the diplomas and

commissions issued to President Hayes during the last fifty

years of his life, beginning with his degree of B. A., at Kenyon

College, in 1842; B. L. at Harvard Law School, in 1845, two

commissions as City Solicitor of Cincinnati before the war; his

military commission as Major, Lieutenant-Colonel, Colonel,

Brigadier General and Brevet Major-General U. S. Volunteers;

two commissions as Representative in Congress from the Cin-

cinnati District, three commissions of Governor of Ohio, and the

certificate of his election as President of the United States from

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480      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

1877 to 1881. Also the honorary degree of LL.D., from Ken-

yon, Harvard, Yale and Johns Hopkins. There are also the

diplomas of Lucy Ware Webb from the Wesleyan Female Semi-

nary of Cincinnati in 1850, together with her valedictory ad-

dress and the original manuscripts of several essays written by

her before her graduation.

In the east library are the full length portraits by Andrews

of Mrs. Hayes and of General Hayes in the uniform of a Brevet

Major-General. There is also a duplicate of the Belgium ma-

hogany table and of the two large mahogany show cases, one of

which contains a large collection of autograph letters of promin-

ent statesmen, soldiers, authors, poets, editors and philanthrop-

ists. This room like the other is lined with cases filled with li-

brary of Americana. Of the four large corner cases, one con-

tains on mounted forms the uniform coat worn by Lieutenant

Colonel Hayes when so severely wounded at the Battle of South

Mountain, in the Antietam campaign, September 14-18, 1862.

The coat was cut from his body, and it was many months before

he recovered from this, the most severe of his six wounds re-

ceived in battle. Although thirteen presidents of the United

States have been soldiers in war, none other save only James

Monroe was wounded in battle, he having been slightly wounded

at the Battle of Princeton in 1777. The general officer's coat

and also the highly prized Brigadier General's shoulder straps,

given him by his immediate commander, Major-General George

Crook, the famous Indian fighter and hunter, at the close of the

Shenandoah Valley campaign in 1864, are also in this case.

One of the other corner cases contains the dress and uni-

form worn by Fanny Hayes, aged ten, and Scott, aged seven,

at a Martha Washington children's dress ball, given at the White

House.   The other cases contain uniforms worn at many in-

augurations and funerals of presidents, during the National ad-

ministrations from Hayes to Taft, inclusive.

Immediately over the portraits is the regimental flag pre-

sented by Mrs. Hayes to the 23rd Ohio on her husband's pro-

motion out of the regiment, and returned to her when the regi-

ment was mustered out in 1865. General Hayes' brigade head-

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Dedication of the Hayes Memorial.        481

 

quarters flag and division headquarters flag are enclosed in glass

cases on either side of the portraits.

The illuminated portraits on the windows in this room show

the patriotic citizenship of Sandusky County, and the military

heroes whose names are household words. Major George Crog-

han, the gallant defender of Fort Stephenson, against the British

and Indians, Aug. 2d, 1813, who was promoted and presented

with a gold medal and each of his officers with a sword by the

United States for gallantry in the defence of Fort Stephenson;

Lieutenant Colonel John C. Fremont, the Pathfinder and explorer,

after whom the town was named when changed from Lower

Sandusky in 1849; and the local representatives in each of

the wars since the Declaration of Independence, viz.: Private

James Webb, aged 18, father of Lucy Webb Hayes, who served

here in Captain Garrard's company, Kentucky Mounted Riflemen,

in the second war with Great Britain; Captain Samuel Thompson,

who was wounded at Lundy's Lane, Canada, in the War of 1812

and led a company from Sandusky County in the war with

Mexico, 1846-48; Major General James B. McPherson, the officer

highest in rank and command killed in battle during the War

for the Union; Sailor George B. Meek, the first American killed

in the War with Spain, 1898-9. The last three are buried in

this county.

Two illuminated windows, high up, portray the Filipino pony

"Piddig," ridden by Colonel Hayes at the relief of Vigan, Nor-

thern Luzon, P. I., when he won his Congressional medal of

honor; and his horse, Trooper, which he rode in the relief of

Peking.

The Museum on the lower floor of the Memorial Building is

an exact counterpart of the main rotunda and library. The mu-

seum rotunda contains a complete collection of specimens of

bronze and brass field guns, captured in each of the wars in which

the United States has been engaged, including the War for Inde-

pendence. The first is a bronze cannon which contains the British

coat-of-arms and King George's royal cipher, with the inscription

engraved on it by direction of Gen. Benedict Arnold before his

treachery: "Taken at the storm of the British lines, near Sara-

toga, Oct. 7, 1777, by -    " with the name, Benedict Arnold

Vol. XXV-31

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482      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

erased, as it was from all trophies by direction of the Continental

Congress. A bronze coehorn mortar, with the British coat-of-

arms and King George's royal cipher is the trophy captured dur-

ing the second war with Great Britain, 1812. A small bronze

cannon, inscribed "San Juan" was captured in the War with

Mexico, 1846-48. This was one of the four bronze guns, the

Four Apostles, presented by the king and queen of Spain to-

in----, which were used after the conquest of Mexico. The

other three guns, St. Matthew, St. Mark and St. Luke, are now

on exhibition at West Point and the War Department in Washing-

ton. The guns of the Apostles' Battery were used when Texas de-

clared her independence from Mexico and were captured later

during the war with Mexico. A brass, six-pound gun inscribed

"Louisiana" was captured during the War for the Union, 1861-65.

A single-barreled and a double-barreled bronze, swivel lantaka

was taken by Magellan to the Philippine Islands after his dis-

covery of the Straits of Magellan, and was taken from the Span-

iards by the savage Moros of Mindanao, P. I. The double-bar-

reled gun was presented by Datto Piang of Reina Regenta, Mind-

anao, on the visit of the first American troops under Colonel

Hayes to that fort in the winter of 1899-1900. The last, and

probably most interesting, is a bronze cannon with numerous

Manchu hieroglyphics, one of three guns brought by Colonel

Hayes to America, which had been used in firing on the legations

and on the relief column, from Hata gate, leading into the Tartar

City from the Chinese city of Peking, in 1900.

The family barouche, purchased by President Hayes in

March, 1877, and used as the President's carriage during the ad-

ministration of President Hayes and the brief administration of

President Garfield, was placed in the museum before the building

was finished. It has been occupied by all the presidents from

Grant to McKinley, by all of our leading generals, Grant, Sher-

man, Sheridan, Hancock, Schofield, Miles and Crook, while

guests of President Hayes. A recess case contains the Hayes

family cradle, the Wheeler & Wilson sewing machine and the

old lapboard, which were much used by Lucy Webb Hayes dur-

ing the war for the Union in preparing the necessary clothes for

her four small boys during the winters which were spent with

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Dedication of the Hayes Memorial.         483   them in the camp of her husband in western Virginia. There is also a miniature three-story doll house, which was on exhibition at a fair in Baltimore, and then presented to Fanny Hayes, aged ten, and used by her at the White House. The east and west museums are duplicates in size of the east and west libraries. The east museum is reserved for General Hayes' war relics and war photographs and numerous curios collected on his trips while President. His complete horse equip- ment, saddle, bridle, pistol holster, mess chest, with dishes of iron and heavy stoneware, and bedding roll, with numerous other per- sonal effects used in the war are placed in one of the two large Japanese show cases used for the Japanese exhibit at the Cen- tennial exposition in 1876. Two other show cases contain a fairly large collection of guns, pikes, swords, flags, and other articles captured in the early months of the War for the Union. Other cases contain samples of equipment carried by members of his favorite regiments, and others a collection of war time photo- graphs, etc., including a collection of political badges dating back to the Harrison campaign of 1840, with many valuable souvenirs of Lincoln's campaign.

The west museum contains a large collection of hunting and Indian and war relics made by Colonel Webb C. Hayes who, for thirteen years prior to the death in 1890 of his godfather, Major-General George Crook, the most famous hunter and Indian fighter of the United States Army, went on long hunting trips with him in the wilds of the Rocky Mountains. There is also a very large collection of war curios made while serving as Major 1st Ohio Cavalry, through

the campaign of Santiago de Cuba, and for the invasion of Porto Rico, in the War with Spain; and while serving as Lieutenant Colonel of the 31st U. S. Infantry during the insurrection in the Philippines, extending from General Young's

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484      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

campaign in northern Luzon, where Colonel Hayes won the

much coveted Congressional Medal of Honor for distin-

guished gallantry in the relief of Vigan, ₄th December, 1899,

down to the campaign against the Moros of Mindanao where his

regiment was the first American garrison of that island, with

headquarters at Zamboanga, from 1899 to 1901. There is also a

very large collection made during the Boxer insurrection in China,

where he served on Major General Chaffee's staff in the China

Relief Expedition of 1900. Subsequent campaigns which he at-

tended as an observer are represented by interesting collections

made during the Russian-Japanese war, when he served with

General Koroki's Japanese army on the march through Korea

to the Yalu river, and later with the Russian army in the vicinity

of Mukden, and during the present great European war in

France, Belgium and Germany, during the first months of hos-

tilities, where he secured at Louvain within a fortnight after the

destruction of the famous library, three porcelain cups, the only

articles saved from that famous library.

The twenty-two windows of the museum have had placed

in them illuminated portraits of the landing of Columbus on the

discovery of America in 1492; a portrait of Amerigo Vespucci,

after whom the western continent was named; and then five

portraits each of famous characters of the Indians, the Span-

iards, the French and the British who had to do with this part

of Ohio, prior to the formation of the American Commonwealth

after the Declaration of Independence. It is the intention to

place on the upper sash of each of these twenty-two windows,

portraits of the famous Americans who had to do with military

campaigns in this vicinity or were native to it, in the campaigns

of the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the War with Mex-

ico, the War for the Union, the War with Spain, and the in-

surrection in the Philippines and the China Relief expedition of

1900.

The large American flag which floats over the Memorial

Building was presented by the Col. George Croghan Chapter,

D. A. R., on Flag Day, June 14, 1915.

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