The Cannons That Came To Spiegel Grove

 For many years, I wondered what had become of the cannons that flanked the Spiegel Grove entrances featured in old postcards. Not long ago, Curator of Manuscripts Julie Mayle discovered when and why they disappeared. Her research appears in an article in the Hayes Presidential “Statesman,” The cannons were Rodman guns, named after their inventor Thomas Jackson Rodman.  At the time of the Civil War, they were the largest guns in the U.S. arsenal.

Preceding the White House gates, the cannon at the Harrison Gateway were the 15-inch style, while those at the McPherson-Thompson Gateway were 10-inch. Atop each gun was a 20-inch cannonball. Julie learned that it was Admiral Webb Hayes II, grandson of the president, who believed they should be donated to Sandusky County’s scrap drive in support of World War II.

Undated Spiegel Grove Post Card

                                                       

It took great effort to bring the 7-ton cannons down. The job was completed in November 1942 and the guns were transported by rail to a rolling mill in Mansfield. Eventually, more than $230 was raised and donated to the U.S.O.

Now my question was how did these giant Civil War cannons come to be at Spiegel Grove? There was little doubt that this was the work of Colonel Webb C. Hayes, Rutherford and Lucy’s second son and founder of the Hayes Presidential Library and Museums. The colonel acquired two for the Harrison Gateway in time for the dedication of the Harrison Trail.

But the two 10-inch Rodmans came later through the colonel’s contact with Major General Frederick Grant, the son of President Ulysses S. Grant. After a storied career in the military, General Grant became the Commander of the East, headquartered at Governor’s Island in New York. He wrote in 1911 that he considered the colonel’s desire to place the Civil War cannons at the McPherson-Thompson Gateway was a “worthy purpose.” No doubt he had known General James McPherson.  As a 10-year-old boy, he was with his father, General Ulysses S. Grant, during the Siege of Vicksburg. General McPherson had served on his father's staff.

General Frederick Grant ordered two Rodmans located at Fort Caswell in North Carolina be sent to Spiegel Grove. The Union forces had placed the guns there to defend Wilmington in early 1865 after the Confederates surrendered the fort. They arrived in Fremont, Ohio in November of 1911. According to a Fremnont “New-Messenger” article, it took a massive effort by the city engineer, superintendent of streets, and a number of men under direction of the colonel to erect the two cannons weighing 35,000 pounds. 

For more than 30 years, they marked the gateway honoring Civil War General James McPherson and Samuel Thompson who fought in both the War of 1812 and the War with Mexico.

 

Our Sacred Honor

                                                                

Painting by John Trumbull
Courtesy of Wikipedia

                                                                 

 The 4^th of July of 2022 is long gone for another year. But a look back at this past Independence Day is somewhat different. One poll showed only 41% of respondents were proud to be Americans. Indeed, the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence were flawed. More than half were slave holders. Unlike Lewis Morris of New York, who said, “Damn the consequences, give me the pen,” Lyman Hall of Georgia signed reluctantly. John Hancock, whose name and signature we all know had a bounty on his head. Yet he signed boldly, giving others the confidence in the right of their actions. One of those grievances was that England had forbidden colonists to settle in the Ohio Country or any other English territory west of the Appalachians.  They signed “with firm reliance on the protection of the divine providence, mutually pledged to each other, our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.” They did so knowing full well they were committing treason. If captured, torture and death awaited them.

                                                                  

Courtesy of Mount Vernon.org

                                                 

There were 14 farmers, 18 merchants, 22 lawyers, four doctors, nine judges, and one minister. The oldest was the beloved Benjamin Franklin at 70. The youngest was Thomas Lynch, Jr. of South Carolina. He was only 27. All were well educated with much to lose.

And so it was that 17 fought in the American Revolution. Two lost sons serving in the Revolutionary Army. Five of the signers were captured including Thomas Rutledge, Thomas Heyward and Arthur Middleton. George Walton was wounded and captured at the Battle of Savannah. The British dragged Richard Stockton of New Jersey from his bed, stripped him of his home and property, and threw him into prison where he nearly starved to death.

Thomas McKean of Delaware wrote John Adams that he was “hunted like a fox by the enemy.” He was forced to move his family continuously. The property and home of Francis Lewis of New York was destroyed. The British captured Elizabeth Lewis at the Battle of Brooklyn. She was jailed as the wife of a traitor. The conditions were so inhumane that she died within months after release.

The British looted the property and home of John Hart of New Jersey. Hart hid out for more than a year. But still, he offered George Washington his fields as an encampment for his 12,000 soldiers. Hart died of exhaustion in 1779, one of the 14 signers who did not survive to see America’s victory.

Cornwallis confiscated Thomas Nelson, Jr.’s Yorktown home to use for his headquarters. When American forces laid siege to Yorktown, Brigadier General Nelson ordered artillerists to fire on his own home. The structure survived. If you visit you can still see some of the damage. 

Thomas Nelson, Jr. Home, Yorktown
fully restored 1976 
 Courtesty of National Park Service

                                                            

Though imperfect, the 56 sacrificed much.  We know many did not live up to the ideals set forth in the Declaration of Independence. But they fought, suffered, and some died to give us a document that set us on the path of liberty and freedom previously unknown in the history of the world.

 

For the Love of Maps

 Recently I lost a map of the state of Ohio that I purchased several years ago. It was expensive, printed on fine paper, and beautiful. It was one of my favorites because like others I own, it connected me to places that brought back fond memories. I have a drawer full of maps that I picked up over the years – mostly as a child at gas stations where they were always free. Some show streets, counties, towns, rivers, the Great Lakes, and most of all - places I could only imagine visiting.

Today, maps, like the one I bought in Ohio are scarce and few are free. Why? Because nearly everyone uses GPS. We no longer need a map to find our way. The lady tells us just how to get there, but she doesn’t help us visualize where we are in relation to our surroundings.

At no time in our history was this more important than in the Civil War. It was the Union forces who were in desperate need of accurate maps as they plunged blindly into the southern states to fight the Confederacy (who had the advantage of knowing every stream, road, and pass).

As armies have done for centuries, both Union and Confederate, they lived largely off the land. Therefore, it was essential for the Union to have detailed maps that identified crops, orchards, fording sites, parallel roads, woods, and landmarks. Without this knowledge, Union armies, made up of thousands of men and horses, could be stalled in an area without sufficient water and resources. Within days they would be starving.

I had the good fortune to see some of the Civil War maps at the Hayes Presidential Library and Museums. One in particular (shown nearby), made in 1863 for General William S. Rosecrans details the area around Cleveland, Tennessee, some 30 miles from Chattanooga. Using an existing map, engineer William E. Merrill traveled the area, adding critical details, including swampy areas, “good farming country” “broken country,” springs. creeks, woods, mills, bridges and even residents’ names. These maps were printed on cloth and could be washed, dried and stuffed into saddlebags.

                                                                    

Cleveland, Tennessee, 1863, by William E. Merrill
Hayes Presidential Library and Museums

Another map, boring to the eye, was actually vital to General William T. Sherman. It shows Cobb County Georgia divided into numbered lots, 6/10^th of a mile on each side originally surveyed in 1840. From this map, Sherman was able to tell his army commander General James McPherson that his headquarters was located in a house “not far from the northwest corner of lot #273”.

                                                            

Cobb County Georgia
Developed from the Land Office Map, 1864
Hayes Presidential Library and Museums

In contrast, General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia marched into Gettysburg’s unfamiliar and unfriendly territory. As General James Longstreet described it, Lee was like a man walking “over strange ground with his eyes shut.” This was the situation Union armies faced throughout the war.

While no longer as important as they once were, maps still remain interesting documents that connect us to the wider world. They are also like time capsules that bring back memories of trips taken and roads traveled. 

Much of what I learned of Civil War maps and those who made them came from discussions with Earl McElfresh during his visit to the Hayes Presidential Library and Museums when he was seeking unique Civil War maps in repositories around the country. It was he who explained to me the significance of these maps to Union commanders. 

McElfresh published many of these maps in a book titled Maps and Mapmakers of the Civil War. Some were exquisitely drawn while others were quick pencil sketches. Many are not only beautiful, but colorful. His work appears on the Internet Archive where Mr. McElfresh provides an explanation of each maps importance. McElfresh Map Company reproduces significant maps of the Civil War. You can also view maps of WWII, the Underground Railroad, Little Big Horn Battlefield, and even Antarctica in  his online gallery. To learn about the process of creating maps, see Mr. McElfresh's Blog.

The Inspiration for Mickey!

 One of America’s most iconic images is that of Mickey Mouse, the beloved cartoon character that became the Disney mascot. For generations, Mickey and his adventures have symbolized fun, childhood, laughter, happiness, and joy. The inspiration for Mickey began with Clifton Meek born in Fremont in 1888. Clifton was the son of George and Harriet (Mourer) Meek. At the age of 17, Clifton was working for the Wheeling and Lake Erie Railroad as a telegrapher. Hoping for a better career, Meek attended Cleveland School of Art. He soon found work as a cartoonist for the Scripps-McRae Syndicate in San Francisco.

                                                               

Johnny Mouse by Clifton Meek

Johnny Gruelle, Meek’s friend and creator of “Raggedy Ann"  books, convinced Meek to join him in Norwalk, Connecticut. Meek and his family headed east, settling in nearby Silvermine. It was here that Meek created the 4-panel strip titled “The Adventures of Johnny Mouse” as a pantomime comic. Johnny Mouse eventually  wore pants, shoes, sported large ears, and took part in all sorts of antics. Meek’s “Johnny Mouse” was syndicated from 1913 to 1915. He also created “George Grindstone” and “Nobody” for the “New York Evening Journal” and the “New York World.” By the 1920s, Meek had become a freelance artist producing “funny animal” comics that appeared in “Puck,” “Judge,” and “Life” magazines.

                                                               

Raggedy Ann by Johnny Gruelle

Meek grew tired of cartoons and knew it was time for a change. He wrote, “I felt like I was in a factory. I began to see George Grindstone in my dreams.” Clifton bought a forge and began a successful career creating ironwork that he sold throughout the region, becoming part of the Silvermine Artists Guild.

 

Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse

                                                  

In 1944, Meek got the surprise of his life when he read a Walt Disney interview. Walt told that between the ages of five and ten, he had lived on a Missouri farm where he learned what farm animals looked like…  “It was those early childhood days that the first faint glimmering of mouse fascination dawned on Disney.” Then Walt Disney is quoted as saying “there was a man named Clifton Meek who used to draw cute little mice and I grew up with those drawings…. They were different from ours, but they had cute ears.”

 

Clifton was delighted to learn that he had ignited the spark of inspiration for Mickey. After writing Disney a note of thanks, Meek received an autograph picture signed in appreciation. In a 1950s interview, Ub Iwerks, a partner of Disney in the early days, also confirmed that Meek’s mouse cartoons were their inspiration. The animated short film “Steamboat Willie,” drawn exclusively by Iwerks, debuted in 1928. Mickey Mouse became an instant hit. And, as they say, “the rest is history!”

Ironically, Clifton Meek’s granddaughter came to Ohio to attend Heidelberg University and made Tiffin her home where she lives today.

 

 

Ulysses S. Grant: A Look Back

 

This year the Hayes Presidential Library and Museumsat Spiegel Grove will  celebrate the 200^th birthday of the 19^th president who was born in Delaware, Ohio on October 4, 1822. Celebrations will soon be underway for another Ohio president, also born 200 years ago. Ulysses S. Grant was born on the 27^th of this month near the Ohio River at Point Pleasant. The son of a tanner and later a West Point graduate and a veteran of the War with Mexico, Grant suffered innumerable failures and setbacks in his personal life.

                                                        

                                    

                                        General Ulysses S. Grant

But with quiet confidence and enduring love for his wife Julia, Grant in 7 years rose from a lowly clerk in his father’s store to commander of all the Union armies and President of the United States.

As president, Grant advanced the Reconstruction agenda, battled the KKK, and signed the Civil Rights Act of 1875. There were mistakes and scandals. Yet, he became the most well-known and popular American of his time. When Grant left office after two terms, future President James Garfield wrote, “No American has carried greater fame out of the White House than this silent man who leaves today.”

While a great general, Ulysses S. Grant was a poor businessman. Swindled by his son’s brokerage partner, Grant found himself destitute.  A short time later, his doctors gave him the sad diagnosis of throat cancer. With a death sentence before him, Grant could only think of providing a way out of poverty for his beloved Julia.

Mark Twain offered an advance of $25,000 for publication of each of 2 volumes of his military memoirs, but Grant refused believing that Twain would lose money. They settled on a profit sharing deal. Even though he was in a race against time, Grant proved to be a gifted writer. Through excruciating pain, fits of coughing and at times, unable to eat or speak, he continued to write. Finally, on July 19th, 1885, Grant penned his final words. Four days later, the man who had saved the Union breathed his last. More than one million people, both Union and Confederate, attended his funeral in New York City.

                                                         

Grant Writing his "Personal Memoirs"

Grant’s “Personal Memoirs” became America’s first blockbuster. As he had hoped, Julia lived on in comfort, receiving $450,000 from Twain’s firm. To this day, his work has never been out of print. Every president since, has consulted Grant’s memoirs when writing their own.

                                                              

                                      Tomb of Ulysses S. Grant

                                              

As one historian wrote, “In the generations after his death in 1885, Grant’s reputation as a general and president spiraled downward until the current generation of biographers and historians has persuasively resurrected it.” Another wrote, “…how fortunate the nation was that Grant went into the world – to save the Union, to lead it and, on his deathbed, to write one of the finest memoirs in all of American letters.” Pick up one of these recent biographies or better yet, read his “Personal Memoirs.” They do not disappoint.

                                                         

                  Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant, First Edition

 

Life and Times of Judge Aaron Levisee

 

Few Sandusky County pioneers led a more eventful life than Aaron Levisee. Born in Livingston County, New York in 1821, Levisee moved to Sandusky County at the age of 10. Bright, energetic, and the youngest of 11 children, Levisee was forced to find his own way in the world. He eventually attended the University of Michigan which led directly to teaching positions in Louisiana and then Alabama. Hungering for more education, Levisee came north once more to study law in New York before returning to Talladega where he became head of the Female Collegiate Institute of Talladega.

                                                                   

Judge Aaron Levisee

The following year, he married Persia Willis who had grown up at “Thornhill,” a 2600-acre cotton plantation nearby. After their marriage, the couple moved to Shreveport where Aaron opened a law practice and presented his bride with their new home, also called “Thornhill.” The couple had only one son, Leonidas.

                                                             

 

                             Thornhill Plantation, Talladega, Alabama

Aaron continued to practice law in Shreveport and was elected judge of his district. Although respected by those who knew him, Judge Levisee lost support when he took a stand against the South’s secession movement. Despite his unpopularity he remained in the South throughout the war, eventually serving the Confederacy as an attache to the Inspector General. After Persia’s death in 1862, “Thornhill” served as a Confederate military hospital.

                                                                       

                          Thornhill Shreveport, Louisiana

During the Reconstruction era, he was elected successively as a judge and state legislator from the district that includes Shreveport. Levisee presided over the trial of Ku Klux Klan members who murdered an African American for casting a vote for Ulysses S. Grant in the 1868 presidential election. He assumed his duties as a legislator in 1874 at the height of an armed conflict between Republican supporters and the White League over control of the state legislature.

He served as one of six Louisiana presidential electors during the controversial Hayes/Tilden election. Levisee refused a bribe to cast his vote for Democrat Tilden. But on the appointed December day when the presidential electors were to cast their votes at New Orleans, Levisee and another elector were snowed in at the Red River. It was not until more than a year later, when the Democratic Congress was continuing its investigation of the disputed election that he learned his signature had been forged and then sent on to Washington!

Having lost a second wife during the Civil War and another shortly after marriage, Levisee moved with his son to the Pacific Northwest and then the Dakota Territory. It was here that he again opened a law practice. He also performed a massive work by preparing and publishing an annotated edition of the legal codes adopted by the state of South Dakota. In 1893, Judge Levisee’s life came full circle. He returned to Sandusky County,where he lived out his final years, dying in 1907. The diary, detailing the eventful life of Judge Levisee can be found at the Library of Congress. The original “Thornhill” plantation and the Shreveport estate named “Thornhill,” built for his first wife Persia, still survive.

 

 

 

 

 

The Courageous Laura Haviland

 After reading my article about the Underground Railroad published in Lifestyles 2000, my friend told me about her great aunt, Laura Haviland. In fact, she shared her first edition of Laura’s autobiography, “A Woman’s Life Work.” (You can find a full transcription of the book online.) Laura was born in Canada in 1808 to American Quaker parents, Daniel and Sene Smith. At the age of 16, she married Charles Haviland. Shortly after, they moved with other Quakers to Lenawee County, Michigan.

Quakers had always condemned slavery, but initially did not work actively for abolition. Restless, determined, and driven to action, Laura Haviland took up the more active role of Wesleyan Methodists to fight slavery. With Elizabeth Chandler, Laura formed the Logan FemaleAnti-Slavery Society, the first abolitionist organization in Michigan.  The Havilands began hiding fugitive slaves. Their home became the first Underground Railroad station in Michigan.

                       

                        Laura Haviland Statue in Adrian, Michigan                    

Laura also founded the Raisin Institute, the first racially integrated school in Michigan. The Havilands brought several teachers from Ohio’s Oberlin College who helped them make it one of the best schools in the territory.

In 1845, the family was struck by erysipelas. Laura became desperately ill. Upon her recovery she learned that her husband, sister, parents, and young baby had died. Despite these tragedies, Laura remained as determined as ever to carry on her battle against slavery.

She made trips into the Deep South to aid escaped slaves. In an effort to bring the children of a fugitive slave couple to freedom in Michigan, she traveled to the tavern of slave owner John Chester of Washington County, Tennessee. Chester held Laura, her son, and another at gunpoint, threatening to kill them. They managed to escape only to be chased by slave catchers. For the next 15 years, Chester and his son harassed Laura Haviland in court, with slave catchers, and with threats of violence. After the Fugitive Slave Act, she began escorting runaway slaves to Canada. In 1851, she helped found the Refugee Home Society in Windsor, Ontario, a settlement with a church, school, and 25 acres for each family. 

When the Civil War broke out, Haviland traveled throughout the South, distributing supplies, caring for the wounded, and working for better hospital conditions as far the Gulf of Mexico. At war’s end General O. O. Howard appointed Haviland Inspector of Hospitals for the Freedmen’s Bureau. Haviland traveled to Virginia, Tennessee, Kansas, and Washington, D.C. teaching, lecturing, and volunteering as a nurse.

The Raisin Institute went through many changes, becoming the Haviland Home, an orphanage for African American children. Eventually, the home was purchased by the state and became known as the Michigan Orphan Asylum.

Even in her later years Laura Haviland continued to work tirelessly to help freed slaves. Using her own money, Laura bought 240 acres in Kansas where African Americans escaping the violence of the KKK could farm, raise their children, and attend school. Both Haviland, Kansas and Haviland, Ohio were named in her honor. The image nearby is that of a statue of Laura Haviland in Adrian, Michigan.

 

 

Independent Order of the Odd Fellows, Elmore Lodge No. 462

As a child while waiting with my dad for the light to change on the Elmore, Ohio town hill, I often wondered what those very large plaster letters I O O F meant on the corner building of the main street. Little did I know that it represented the Elmore chapter of the Independent Order of the Odd Fellows, a fraternal organization that began in the U. S in a Baltimore tavern in 1819 with the formation of Washington Lodge No. 1

                                                                             

                         Symbols of the Independent Order of the Odd Fellows

It became the first fraternity to include both men and women when it adopted the “Beautiful Rebekah Degree” in 1851. It was sometimes called the “Triple Links Fraternity” because of its motto “Friendship, Love, Truth.” During the 19^th century, it became the largest fraternal organization in the nation – larger than the Freemasonry. By 1889, every state had lodges. It was especially popular among skilled workers and laborers. Yet, Presidents Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, McKinley, Harding, and FDR were members as well as several Supreme Court justices.

The IOOF was devastated by the Civil War. Chapters did not begin to reorganize until some years later. Elmore was designated as Lodge No. 462 when it organized in May of 1870 with some 32 charter members. John Jenny being its first brother. Like all lodges, it promoted charity, the development of character, and relief of sickness and suffering among the brotherhood. Elmore Lodge members took seriously the command “to visit the sick, relieve the distressed, bury the dead, and educate the orphan.”

Members accomplished this work through weekly Friday evening meetings held at 7 p.m. in the hall from October through February and Fridays at 8 p.m. beginning in June. New members were initiated, dues paid, ceremonies performed and degrees conferred. From their dues, members paid those who reported as “sick” one dollar each week. As the years went by, the amount was raised to $3 per week. But by-laws required that a member must be sick enough to remain at home. Funeral costs were also covered. Widows received some compensation from the organization as well. Yet, the Ohio lodges even found enough funds to build and support a home in Springfield, Ohio, for indigent members and their families.

Lindsey Lodge Members 

Some moved away, transferring their membership. Others were dropped for lack of payment of dues, but all members, if they chose, were easily reinstated. In 1915, the Lindsey Lodge began meeting in the Elmore IOOF Hall, paying rent of 40 dollars semi- annually and covering janitorial services. On April 8, 1921, the two lodges consolidated adding some 2 dozen brothers to the rolls. During the Great Depression, membership declined across the country when fees could no longer be afforded. When social reforms of Roosevelt’s New Deal began to take effect, there was less need for the work of the IOOF. And, lodges took on a greater social role for members. Cards, dart ball, singing, and picnics were enjoyed by the brotherhood. More than 300 members had at one time or another been part of Lodge No. 462 by the outbreak of WWII. Today there are 155 lodges in Ohio with more than 4,000 members and 187 Rebekah lodges with 8,000 members.

                                                                  

                                            Lindsey Lodge Members

                                                                

 The Elmore records were recently discovered and donated to the Harris-Elmore Public Library.