USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > History of the Cuyahoga County soldiers' and sailors' monument > Part 28
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LUCY WEBB HAVES IN FIELD HOSPITAL AT FREDERICK, MARYLAND, AFTER BATTLE OF ANTIETAM, 1862.
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mitting the slaves of his inheritance, with the intention of sending them to Liberia. This trip occurred during the cholera scourge of 1833, and, being a physician, he lingered among his old-time friends with a loyalty unto death, giving them care and medical attendance until he himself was stricken fatally by the disease.
Most of the years of Mrs. Hayes' childhood were passed with her mother at Chillicothe, and at the home of her grandfather, Judge Isaac Cook, who had served through the Revolutionary War in the regiment of his father, Col. Isaac Cook, of Connecticut, and had re- moved to Chillicothe, the first capital of Ohio, in 1791, and who for fifty years was one of the foremost inen of his time, serving the State in legislative and judicial positions for more than thirty years. After the death of her husband, Mrs. Webb removed to Delaware, in order to be near the Ohio Wesleyan University, where her sons were being educated. Her estate was sufficient to give her children a careful education. Lucy studied with her brothers and recited to the college professors. When her brothers began their studies in the medical college, she entered Wesleyan Female College at Cincinnati, the first chartered college for young women in America, and was graduated in the class of 1851, being then in her nineteenth year. While living in Delaware, she had met young Rutherford B. Hayes, who was on a visit to the place of his birth. In a little over a year after the close of hier school days, she joined hands, hearts and fortunes with the young lawyer who had also settled in Cincinnati, and on the 30th of December, 1852, she became his bride.
At the breaking out of the War of the Rebellion, her family consisted of her husband, her mother, two brothers and her four little boys. Her husband and both of her brothers immediately entered the Army, and from that time until the close of the War her home
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was a refuge for wounded, sick and furloughed Soldiers going to or returning from the front. She spent two Winters in camp with her husband, while he was colonel of the 23rd Ohio. The members of the 23rd first saw her at the camp of instruction at Columbus in June and July, 1861, saw her as they marched to take the cars for their first campaign in West Virginia. From that day until the dedication of the regimental monu- ment in Woodland Cemetery in 1865, they were conscious of her unremitting efforts for their comfort and their benefit. They well remember her numerous visits to the camps in Virginia, the light that accom- panied her, the cheery, joyous nature which softened every heart, the happy effect of the glowing face and sweet rich voice by the side of the wounded or the homesick boy. She was the ideal Mother; so when her baby boy died in camp. the whole regiment inourned with her, and provided a guard to carry the remains lovingly to Ohio for interment.
She was at home during the bloody Antietam Cam- paign in 1862, in which the 23rd suffered so severely, her own husband being among the wounded. With what promptitude she made her way to the scene of action, with what energy she prosecuted her search for days through the various hospitals for her husband, and then, when he was found, how unselfishly were her ministrations bestowed upon all who suffered. She remained until the other wounded members of the regiment were able to be moved to Ohio; then, after the farewell visit to the battlefield, she started for Ohio with the convalescing officers and men of the regiment, accompanied by one assistant, and succeeded in placing them in their homes after a memorable trip. She afterwards spent the Winters of 62-63 and 63-64 with the regiment in camp, only leaving after the regiment had started on the memorable Sheridan Cam-
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paign of 1864, when with the sick, wounded and non- combatants she returned to Ohio, the regiment being cheered by the farewell in her own rich tones, which was wafted to them as they ascended the mountains of Virginia. And at the close, when the plaudits of a grateful people greeted the returning veterans in the capital-the capital of a Nation indeed-she was there witnessing the bearing of her own brave boys, in the glowing pride of a true mother.
The soldiers were all great favorites of hers, and as an illustration of their love, nothing more beautiful can show it than the silver plate presented to her by the members of the 23rd Regiment, O. V. I., at the time of her silver wedding, which was celebrated at the White House in 1877. At the top of the plate is a representa- tion of the tattered regimental flags and the dates 1852- 1877. Under the inscription is a log cabin, a representa- tion of the one Col. and Mrs. Hayes occupied while they spent the winter in Western Virginia. Just below the flags, in a semi-cirele, is inscribed :
TO THE MOTHER OF OURS.
From the 23rd O. V. I. To thee, " Our Mother," ou thy silver troth, We bring this token of our love, thy " boys" Give greeting unto thee with brimming hearts. Take it, for it is made of beaten coin,
Drawn from the hoarded treasures of thy speech. Kind words and gentle, when a gentle word
Was worth the surgery of an hundred schools,
To heal sick thought, and make our bruises whole. Take it, "Our Mother," 'tis but some small part Of thy rare bounty we give back to thee. And while love speaks in silver from our hearts, We'll bribe old Father Time to spare his gift.
After the close of the War she accompanied her huis- band to Washington, while he was a member of Con- gress, and was one of the originators of the Ohio Soldiers' and Sailors' Orphans' Home, at Xenia, Ohio,
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and on its Board of Directors prior to its adoption by the State. Upon the election of her husband as Gov- ernor of Ohio, she removed to Columbus, and during his three terins as Governor took an active interest in the charitable institutions of the State, particularly in the Soldiers' Orphans' Home.
In 1877, she accompanied her husband to Washing- ton, and, at his inauguration as President of the United States, is thus described by Mary Clemmer : "Meanwhile, on this man, of whom every one in the Nation is this moment thinking, a fair woman between two little children looks down. She has a singularly gentle and winning face. It looks out from the bands of smooth dark hair with that tender light in the eyes which we have come to associate always with the Madonna. I have never seen such a face reign in the White House. I wonder what the world of Vanity Fair will do with it? Will it friz that hair? powder that face? draw those sweet, fine lines away with pride? bare those shoulders? shorten those sleeves? hide John Wesley's discipline out of sight, as it poses and minces before the first lady of the land? What will she do with it, this woman of the hearth and home? Strong as she is fair, will she have the grace to use it as not abusing it; to be in it, yet not of it; priestess of a religion pure and undefiled, holding the white lamp of her womanhood, unshaken and unsullied, high above the heated crowd that fawns, flatters and soils? The Lord in Heaven knows. All that I know is that Mr. and Mrs. Hayes are the finest looking type of man and woman that I have seen take up their abode in the White House."
Mrs. Hayes' well known earnestness of conviction on the subject of temperance was inherited from her grandfather, Judge Cook, and from her mother, who was a woman of unusual strength of character and deep religious convictions. The inherent feeling was fostered
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throughout her school-girl days. To her deep and in- born conviction it was her nature to be true through all the circumstances of her life. This high loyalty, shaped simply and naturally, and therefore consistently, was followed through all her years, in the ways of her home life, the manner of her hospitalities and her custom in society, as she moved through them, the wife of a pri- vate citizen, and during the twenty years of her hus- band's public life as a Union General, Member of Con- gress, a Governor of her native State, and the President of the greatest Nation of the world. At the time of hier death, the Star of Washington contained the following, with reference to her life in that city: "She was a woman of education and refinement. She understood the art of entertaining better than inost women even in high social position do. She knew how to make the greater and the less alike feel perfectly at home and enjoy themselves when at her house. Few women would have attempted what she did successfully, to entertain entirely without the use of wines at table. It was well known to her that she must make up in some way for the absence of wine at diplomatic dinners, or must so arrange these occasions as not to make its absence in- appropriate. In her efforts to dispense with the use of wine she had the support of her husband, but the very active opposition of the Secretary of State. It was a struggle between the Premier and the President's wife, and the latter, of course, won. But the scheme Mrs. Hayes devised to meet the difficulty was at once original and very clever. When the time arrived for the diplo- m11atic dinner, instead of the small assemblage of deco- rated diplomats in the state dining-room, she struck upon the idea of a large reception.
"Tables were spread in the ordinary and the state dining-room, and in the offices and lobbies up-stairs, where one might sit or stand, as she or he preferred.
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A magnificent dinner was served, an abundance of everything that goes to make the finest banquet com- plete, except the wine. The impropriety of serving wine to such an assemblage was considered by Mrs. Hayes as excuse enough for not having it; but she made up for its absence by the quality of the dinner. No expense was spared. This was the style of her diplomatic dinners during the whole four years."
And the Post of Washington as follows: "Long be- fore she became first lady of the land was laid the foundation of a deep and sincere admiration. As the wife of a young lawyer, the Soldier, General, and the Governor of Ohio, she fulfilled her part, stood as help- meet and co-laborer with the same sweetness and grace that made hers one of the most memorable of White House reigns. Her success at the White House was marvelous, and was due to a combination of qualities, rare as it is delightful. A striking, brilliant face, a keen mentality and a gentle heart, made up a personality that weighed against political prejudices. It was this magnetic personality that conducted her safely, and with honor to herself and the Nation, through all the diplomatic and social pitfalls of her high position; a kindly, cordial nature, of an unfailing sweetness and ready sympathy which transcend all the acquired graces of earth and grapple friendship with 'hooks of steel.'"
After leaving Washington, the Woman's Christian Temperance Union presented her full-length portrait to be hung in the White House. Mrs. Hayes returned to her dearly loved home, Spiegel Grove, at the expiration of General Hayes' term as President in 1881, and re- smined her active interest in her home and church. In her early childhood, she had joined the Methodist Church and remained a consistent member up to the day of her death. She was elected the first pres-
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ident of the Woman's Home Missionary Society of the Methodist Church and gave much time to the duties of the office, attending the many meetings of the society in the different cities of the Union. She accon- panied her husband on his numerous trips to attend the meetings of the many educational, reformatory and charitable societies and associations with which he was connected, and was a regular attendant at the Animal Reunion of the old 23rd Regiment and of the Army of West Virginia. She was an honorary member of the Society of the Army of West Virginia, of the 23rd Regiment Association and a member of the Women's Relief Corps, whose badge was presented to her by the Department of Ohio, "in loving recognition of her distinguished services in behalf of the Union Veteran and his children. April 18, 1888."
She died at Spiegel Grove, June 25, 1889, while around her bedside were gathered her husband, her daughter and four sons. Her sons and nephews bore her body to the grave, and in accordance with her expressed wish the members of the Old Twenty-Third acted as the Guard of Honor, while the local Grand Army Post preceded the funeral cortege.
The Sabbath succeeding the death of Mrs. Hayes, the eloquent Rev. George W. Pepper paid her memory the following touching and beautiful tribute in a ser- mon delivered by him in the Methodist Church at Ash- land, Ohio, before a crowded audience :
"The last knell has tolled-the last psalın has been sung, the curfew of a noble life has sounded. The church she loved so well has breathed its sacred bene- dictions over her grave! A beautiful Christian life has become immortal. Her soul was like one of the grand cathedrals of the ages of faith, where you go from one shrine to another-each more beautiful than the last, each dedicated to some new virtue, until you reach the
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innermost shrine, and there are concealed the most sacred relics. We have seen this church draped in mourning when the strength of manhood was struck down! We have beheld the brightness and the beauty of youth with the Summer dawning upon its brow, checked in its flood-but never before have we felt so keenly the loss of one of the noblest of American women ! For her life was a grand illustration of Amer- ican practical wisdom, American hospitality, American womanhood and American patriotism.
"'The age of chivalry is past,' exclaimed the philo- sophic Edmund Burke, in one of those great passages of his eloquence-eloquence which recalls the great im- mortals of the past-when his own noble nature flashed ont in sacred indignation at the insult which France had offered to a beautiful woman. He was mistaken! Who that ever heard these Soldiers tell with quivering lips and cheeks wet with tears of the thousand generous and enthusiastic acts of kindness of the noble and gifted lady whom we have lost, rendered to them in the dark and the somber hours of war in the hospital, in the tent, upon the battlefield, without feeling and vividly realizing that the age of chivalry, the chivalry of the heart, was not past, but lived and shone resplen- dently in the life of Mrs. Hayes. They will tell you how she encouraged, cheered and inspired them! How her calm and hopeful words brought memories of home! How she transformed the bed of torture into one of flowers.
"In the midst of a career of usefulness to the church and to the country, with the glowing prospects of life before her, she is snatched away from the husband whom she adored, and from children whom she loved. That gallant heart of her husband, which never quailed in battle-now prostrate with indescribable grief! Oh! what a tie of conjugal sympathy has burst asunder!
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what a beautiful vine has fallen! And now that she has gone beyond the cedars and the stars-now that the passionate tears of friends are staunched-now that private love and public sympathy have shown their sorrow-now that the echoes of that winning voice upon which scores have hung enraptured will never greet mortal ears again,-let us not suppose that the splendid mind is crushed, or that the noble heart has ceased to beat its benevolent pulsations for the cause of humanity which is the cause of Christianity in its best and grandest signification."
HOW THE MONEY FOR THE MONUMENT WAS EXPENDED AND PROVIDED-COST OF MEMORIAL.
The Leader reporter, after an exhaustive examination of the books and accounts, thus shows how the money generously contributed by the tax-payers of the county was expended :
"After the question, 'How much did it cost ?' comes that of 'Where did the money go?' The funds used in the construction of the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument went through a great number of channels and in a di- versity of ways. A portion of the work was done by contract, but by far the greater portion of it on the day's work plan. All of it was under the personal supervision of the members of the Commission. Some of them were on hand constantly to observe the progress of the con- struction, and no move of any consequence was made unless by their direction. During the first years of the existence of the Commission, little actual construction work was done, the preliminaries requiring a great deal of attention. When the plans had progressed suffi- ciently to permit of definite arrangements being entered into, permission was obtained from the Legislature to make use of unoccupied city property, and a studio was built in the rear of the City Hall for the use of the sculptors and architect.
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"The first voucher of the Commission upon the County Auditor was issued July 2, 1888, it being for an estimate of $185.93, for Andrew Dall, Jr., on brick-work. During the period including December 31, of the same year, 155 vouchers were issued, involving a total ex- penditure of $6,020.97. These covered the wages of several sculptors, models, and clay modelers, and sup- plies of various sorts for the studio, besides the other expenses of the studio work. This part of the work paid several comfortable salaries during the first four or five years after actual operations began. There were three sculptors, assistants to Capt. Levi T. Scofield, who made the clay models from which the figures in the various groups were formed, two of whom were paid $40, and the third $35 per week. A clay modeler, at $3.50 per day, was employed for a long time, and in addition there were a number of living models, who posed for the figures in the various groups and panels. These were of both sexes, and were employed as the necessity arose, except in the case of one, Timothy Fogarty, who has been in the employ of the Commis- sion as model and man-of-all-work ever since work was started.
"When another year had rolled around, the vouchers issued numbered 535, with an expenditure of $22,999.31 for the year 1889, making a total of $29,020.28. The first payment for bronze work was made on May 14, 1889, when Bureau Bros., bronze founders, of Philadel- phia, received the first estimate of $800 on the infantry group. On September 17, 1889, an estimate of $4,000 was approved for Bureau Bros., on the infantry group, and another of $2,000 for the Ames Manufacturing Com- pany, on the artillery group. The Ames Manufacturing Company received a second estimate on November 12, 1889, of $2,500 on the cavalry group, and Bureau Bros. received $3,000 on the infantry group on December 10
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of the same year. A short time later, Bureau Bros. re- ceived $2,000 more on the infantry group, and on May 10, 1890, that firm received an additional $400 on the same contract.
"The first payment for the marble was on June 27, 1890, when the Baynes Tracery and Mosaic Company, of New York, received $1,947.71 on the marble tablets containing the names of the Soldiers. On July 3, of the same year, payment of $766.04 was made on the tablets, and other vouchers on the same pieces were approved in rapid succession for some time, the total cost of the tablets being $11,161.98. Bills for stone, bronze and marble, and material not contracted for, used in the construction of the Monument, flowed in rapidly from this time. On December 30, 1890, voucher No. 915 was approved, and the aggregate then reached $54,- 610.03.
"The thousand mark was passed in 1891, and voucher No. 1272, for the services of Lewis Morroni, clay mod- eler, $21, was approved on December 29. The total expenditures of the Commission were now $92,762.13. When December 27, 1892, was reached, the final meet- ing of the Commission for that year was held, and voucher No. 1401 was approved. This brought the ex- penses so far incurred up to $136,265.03.
"Payments on the bronzes had been made with fre- quency during the year, and that item of expense was well out of the way. The cost of the various pieces was as follows : Bureau Bros., the Amazonian statue of Lib- erty, the capital of the shaft, and pedestal of the statue, seven bronze busts, four trophy panels for the outside groups, and four bands to surround the shaft and con- tain the names of the principal battles participated in by Cuyahoga County Soldiers, $20,000 ; infantry group, 'The Color Guard,' $11,000; interior panels, $5,500; the Ames Manufacturing Company, of Chicopee, Mass.,
.
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the artillery group, $6,000 ; cavalry group, $6,985 ; four bronze doors, four grill doors, two eagles, etc., $12,100; American Bronze Company, of Chicago, navy group, ' Mortar Practice,' $4,850.
"Voucher No. 1606 was reached on December 30, 1893, when the aggregate amount paid out reached $238,134.29. The expenditures of the year 1893 were the heaviest in the history of the Monument, $101,- 869.26 being paid out. The total cost of the Monument up to June 4, 1894, was $272,835.78, which was divided as follows : sculptors, $19,390.85; living models, $2,879; plaster modelers, $4,387.79; materials and patterns, $4,464.05; building and incidentals, $19,520.62; bronze, $68,872.73 ; marble, $25,525.16; stone, $18,228.17; mis- cellaneous, $7,919.81 ; material for construction, $99,- 969.13; interest, $1,678.47.
"Among the items of the cost of the Monument, the expenses of the litigation with the City and with indi- viduals take a comfortable slice. The stin of $2,500 was required to cover this item alone. There were 110 Court costs to pay, as the Commission won its case, but there were attorneys to provide for, and some minor bills for printing and clerical work to liquidate. The case of the Monument Commission was placed in the hands of Judge J. M. Jones and Loren Prentiss, Esq. The services of Colonel A. T. Brinsmade were also made use of, but the latter refused to receive any compensa- tion. Mr. Prentiss entered on the case, intending to give his services free, as it was then thought that the litigation would be brief. It was soon seen, however, that the Commission had a long fight ahead, and Mr. Prentiss was properly recompensed for his efforts in behalf of occupying the southeast section of the Public Square as a site for the Monument. He was paid several fees, ranging from $100 to $250 each, the aggregate being in the neighborhood of $1,000. Judge Jones was paid for
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his services at one time, receiving $1,239, of which $39 was for incidental expenses. Another item in the cost was that of electrical appliances, the heaters, the elec- trolier, and chandeliers, costing $6,000. The granite shaft, which weighs in the neighborhood of 140 tons, and consists of ten immense blocks, cost $4,250, and was furnished by Joseph Carabelli. The platforms and steps cost $15,961.45."
The entire cost of the Memorial and its surroundings, including interest on the anticipated collection of taxes, aggregate in round figures $280,000. Not a dollar of this amount has passed through the hands of the Com- mission, all moneys being collected by the County Treasurer, and paid out by him on warrants drawn by the County Auditor, when ordered so to do in writing by the Monument Executive Committee and its Secre- tary.
The sum of $270,000 was raised by public taxation ; $7,750 from interest on money in the county treasury pending the erection of the Monument, loaned out to banks by the Commission ; and $2,250 from advertise- inents on the fence surrounding the Memorial during its construction. Total, $280,000.
The erection of the Memorial was handled with con- suminate skill by our careful and reliable contractors, Col. A. McAllister and Mr. Andrew Dall. We are deeply gratified to be able to say that from the begin- ning of the work until its close, they performed their important part so judiciously that not a life or limb was lost ; neither was any part of the Memorial broken or injured,-another proof that the Lord looked with favor on our undertaking, in addition to the fact that master builders did highly creditable work. The contractors for bronze, granite, marble, tablets, windows, stone and all other work did their respective parts to the satisfac- tion of the Commission.
THE DEDICATORY EXERCISES- THE PRAYERS, SPEECHES, SONGS AND FORM THE APPEARANCE OF THE CITY.
THE Editor of the Plain Dealer was enthusiastic over the dedicatory exercises. Here is what he said :
" The morning of the Fourth was delightful, and all day there was a good breeze from the lake. If the day had been made to order it could not have been more charming.
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