Lucy Webb Hayes: College Essay

 Lucy Webb Hayes was the first First Lady to attend and graduate from college. She attended  the Cincinnati Wesleyan Female College and graduated in 1850. Below is a transcript of one of the handwritten  essays she was assigned to write during her years in college.  This essay is one of several preserved in her collection at the Hayes Presidential Library and Museums. It is undated.

Lucy Webb Hayes

Hayes Presidential Library and Museums

Does gentility always imply morality.

 

What connection is there between gentility; and morality?  The one has reference only to the manner, appearance and society. But what does it mean? It is an expression which we hear daily, and hourly; who of us has not asked the question, when speaking of strangers, are they of a genteel family, are they genteel looking and thousands of others questions, concerning their gentility, which must be ascertained before they are admitted to our companionship.  How much importance attached to a word of nine letters. But in the eyes of many it is one of the most important words in the world, from the estimation in which they hold them who possess a large share of it.

Morality refers to the character & it too is a very common expression though not considered as important as the former.  It does not imply religion, though a religious person must necessarily be moral, but a moral man may  be far from living religious.

In the sense that we understand it, it refers to freedom from any degrading vices, to which one may be addicted, he is a very moral man, this would be a good recommendation to anyone, for by it we know that their life had been free from any disgraceful act conduct But to return, Does gentility always imply morality?  For answer to this go with me and visit some of the very genteel of the world possessed of of beauty added to their other advantages. They are received into the best society, and indeed while in the presence of ladies, may appear to be very moral.  But observe them when with old companions.  Are they characterized by any moral traits, no on the contrary we would be shocked at the depravity and wickedness which they disclose when unmasked. 

This leads me to think of the folly and wrong we share when judging by the external appearance.  The dress may be faultless, the manners unexceptionable, and yet it may conceal a nature deeply depraved, and a mind which has no just standard of good, or appreciation of merit.

And how often in the scriptures are we warned against trusting to external appearance, one passage which occurs to my mind, “Where the outside is clean, but within they are full of all manner of wickedness and uncleanness.  But what will constitute a genteel gentleman and lady, of the present day.  

First, The gentleman must have a coat cut in the latest style, fitting neatly his slender form, high heeled and long toed boots, and an abundance of all sweet smelling perfumes, and last but not least the drawling tone of voice, affected gait, and tie of the cravat, but the education, oh that is finished when he arrived came to the pictures in the old spelling book and, learned the multiplication table. A lady should be dressed in the latest Parisian mode, no matter how indelicate or inappropriate to the time or place, from the esteem in which most are held we are led to think, that the dress and manner are all that is necessary to constitute a genteel person or gentility; 

And if this be the case we can rest assured that possessing a great degree of gentility, they may be totally with out morality. Would you expect to find a moral man frequenting the theater, gambling house, or bar room, and the various places of sinful amusements with which our city abounds.  However genteel they may appear, the fact of their visiting such places, would take from them any claim to morality. These very genteel persons think it beneath their dignity, to attend the house of God, and would be horrified at the idea of lending the helping hand to the poor and unfortunate, and think it derogatory, to their character to be engaged in any business, glorying in the title of a genteel young loafer.

 

Cincinnati Wesleyan Female College

Hayes Presidential Library and Museums

 

Josiah Atkins Jr: Surveying the Black Swamp

Josiah Atkins, Jr.  Ledger, 1826-1827

Hayes Presidential Library and Museums

 

 

Josiah Atkins, Jr. was born in Wolcott, Connecticut in 1789.  He was the younger brother of Quintus F. Atkins who had settled in Ashtabula County, Ohio.  Quintus traveled through Northwest Ohio delivering the mail and beginning a mission with Rev. Joseph Badger.  Later, he was appointed superintendent of building a road through the "Maumee Swamp," land granted to the state of Ohio by Congress.  Quintus sent his younger brother Josiah to survey and sell the lands. He spent three years in Lower Sandusky (now Fremont, Ohio.)

The above images are the first two pages of Josiah's 100-page ledger of the survey of the lands (divided into lots) from the line of the Connecticut Western Reserve to Perrysburg, known as the Black Swamp (now U.S. Route 20).

Josiah Atkins, Jr. detailed the location of the numbered lots by range and township.  He measured the acreage, the presence of streams, and the soil quality of many lots. Atkins identified the  species of trees and also measured their diameter and height: Elm, lynn (also known as poplar), black ash, burr oak, maple, and hickory were present. 

Today this provides an understanding of the original environment and types of trees native to the Black Swamp region. This record is part of the Oscar Stierwalt Local History Collection at the Hayes Presidential Library and Museums. Josiah Atkins, Jr went on to work as a surveyor, builder, accountant, storekeeper and historian, postmaster, and justice of the peace.

Intelligent, well read, and curious, Atkins accumulated a large library that he willed to Tabor College in Iowa.  He died in Oberlin, Ohio in 1871.

Westwood Cemetery

Oberlin, Ohio

Courtesy Find a Grave

James Miller, Wyandot County, Ohio, War of 1812 Veteran

The adventures of Ohio Militia soldiers who enlisted in the War of 1812 is not always well known.  The obituary of James Miller of Crawfordsville, Ohio, (Wyandot Union August 31st, 1882) who died at the age of 96 years gives a glimpse of his life and the trials and tribulations of his War of 1812 service.

Born in Philadelphia in 1787, James Miller left Pennsylvania at the age of 12, making his way through the unbroken forests until he arrived at old Chillicothe, Ohio. James "helped clear up the wilderness" on the lands of Duncan McArthur, who owned extensive property on Paint Creek.

Governor McArthur, much beloved by Chillicothians, raised a regiment to fight the British in 1812. James Miller was one of the first to enlist.  On the march north through the pathless wilderness to Detroit, McArthur's regiment stopped 17 miles west of Carey, Ohio.  The men constructed a fort or blockhouse. They named it Fort Findlay.    

Courtesy Ohio Historical Society

Miller remained with the regiment until it was surrendered to the British by General Hull. At that time, he saw the famous Chief Tecumseh. Later men from Chillicothe were taken by boat to a point on Lake Erie where Cleveland is now located.  They were put ashore without provisions and left to find their way south through the forests to the Ohio River.  As Miller described it, there were "many perils and a great number fell out by the way and died in the forests." Miller was one of the fortunate number who "triumphed over starvation and constant tramping for two weeks." He entered Chillicothe one morning just as the sun was rising. 

In 1813, he married Rhoda Howard and continued working for Duncan McArthur. In 1824, he, along with others from the Ross and Pike County area, headed north to permanently settle along the Tymochtee Creek in Wyandot County, Ohio. "Only a few white people" then lived in the northern wilderness. 

Courtesy Crawfordsville, Ohio

The couple remained there for 58 years. James Miller was survived by his wife who was  then 94 years of age. Their oldest son, Nelson Miller, aged 69, lived with them. The War of 1812 veteran was laid to rest in the Ritchey Cemetery.

King Charles Gifts Facsimile of 1879 Resolute Desk Plans

Resolute Desk

Courtesy White House Historical Association

 

King Charles III on his recent visit to the United States presented President Donald J. Trump with a framed facsimile of the design plans of the Resolute Desk, a partner desk, constructed by Master Carpenter William Evenden from the white oak and mahogany timbers that were once part of the HMS Resolute ship. The original plans, are held by the Maritime Museum in Greenwich, London.

King Charles III during U.S. Visit

Courtesy of United Kingdom

The HMS Resolute was part of an arctic expedition in search of Sir John Franklin, who along with his crew had disappeared during an expedition in search of the Northwest Passage. The Resolute and several other ships became locked in the ice. The officers and crew made it back to England after a harrowing trip over the ice. 

 

HMS Resolute 

Courtesy of United Kingdom

In 1855, the HMS Resolute was discovered by an American whaler. She was adrift in open waters after the summer  thaw. She was some 1200 miles from where she had been abandoned. Congress appropriated the funds to refit the ship and return her to England.  She was given as a gift of friendship to Queen Victoria. 

In 1879, the HMS Resolute was decommissioned. Queen Victoria requested a desk be made from her timbers and presented to President Rutherford B. Hayes. He placed it in his second floor personal study. It is topped with embossed leather and features heavily carved panels. A plaque details its history and creation.

JFK and John Jr, at the Resolute Desk

Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

When the Oval Office was constructed, U.S. Presidents, with few exceptions, have used the desk. President Donald J. Trump had it removed temporarily for refurbishing in February 2025 

A replica of the desk can be viewed at the Hayes Presidential Library and Museums and at other presidential libraries.

Ohio's Wildflowers, Along the Beaten Paths

Lakeside Daisies

Courtesy ODNR

April is Ohio's Native Plant Month.  In 2019 Governor DeWine  penned the act into law. The initiative was begun by Ohio's former First Lady Hope Taft and Nancy Linz as a project in the Heritage Garden at the Governor's Residence. Ohio became the first state to recognize native plants for the entire month. Since then all but two state governors have joined Ohio in recognizing April as native plant month.

Hepatica

Courtesy ODNR

According to Mac Arnold, the Toledo Blade's outdoor editor, Ohio has more than 1,000 miles of trails within its state parks, giving Ohioans plenty of opportunity to enjoy and appreciate the beauty of wildlife around us.

Trillium

Courtesy ODNR

In northwest Ohio, Oak Openings and the Lake Erie Islands, including the Marblehead Peninsula, one can find some of Ohio's most endangered species: Lakeside daisy, narrow leaved blue-eyed grass, and balsam groundsel. At Oak Openings lyre-leaved and Missouri rockcress, and plains puccoons can be found. 

Baxter's and birdfoot violet, early buttercup, rock sandwort, and northern blue-eyed grass are some of Ohio's threatened wildflowers. 

Loss of habitat, deer, fewer pollinators, and non-native invasive plants such as Amur honeysuckle (which tried to get a stranglehold on my lilac bushes) and garlic mustard.

Rick Gardner, botanist at the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, maintains a weekly bloom report of wildflowers seen along Ohio's trails and beaten paths. Go to ohiodnr.gov/go-and-do/see-the-sights/wildflowers.

  

Spring Beauties

Courtesy ODNR

Hall Cemetery, Ottawa County, Ohio

More often than we know, early pioneer cemeteries - without burials for many years and sometimes even decades - are abandoned. This  takes place in every county and state. Grave markers are often broken and illegible, suffering from neglect and the ravages of time and weather. Families move on, leaving behind few records and friends to remember and care for these nearly forgotten burial sites. As new settlers arrive, the  cemeteries gradually lose their identity and meaning altogether. 

So it was with the Hall Cemetery in Ottawa County, Ohio. But thanks to Elmore, Ohio's Robert Luckey, who wrote letters in the late 1890s to the Elmore Independent, a record does exist.  In an 1898 letter, he reminisced about his friends and relatives who had long-since passed and were buried in the Hall Cemetery.  

He mentioned his mother, Anna N. Luckey who was buried December 18, 1838 and his father John L. Luckey who died December 29, 1839. A. W. Luckey's wife died August 4, 1854 of cholera. Frank [Luckey] a son of theirs died April 10,1862 at the age of 7 years.

Nancy Ferris, wife of Ezekiel Ferris and daughter of Joseph and Letha Hall died September 2, 1840.

Rachel Gordon died March 3, 1842 aged 42 years [mother of Washington Gordon]. John Gordon died November 7, 1851 aged 53 years. Mary J. Gordon died August 21, 1837 aged 2 years

George W. Hall died February 9, 1837 in Port Clinton [and was buried in May of that year and then brought by canoe to be reburied in the Hall Cemetery. He was the first one buried in the cemetery.] Joseph Hall died January 1, 1859 aged 74 years. Samuel Hall died April 12, 1836 aged 25 years. James Hall died October 8, 1872 aged 64 years.

Desire Larned died March 4, 1846 aged 81 years.

Former Elmore, Ohio librarian Grace Luebke reprinted some of Robert Luckey's reminiscences in her Elmore Ohio, A History Preserved, Revised Edition with Supplement, 1997 by the Elmore Historical Society. For a complete reading, see pages 22 and 23.

America 250 - Ohio, Documenting Ohio Graves of Revolutionary War Soldiers

                 

Surrender of Lord Cornwallis by John Trumbull

                                                                                     

Last March I posted Linda Huber's efforts to document and recognize the Revolutionary War soldiers who lived, died and were buried in Ottawa County as part of U.S. America 250 - Ohio.

This project continues throughout Ohio's 88 counties.  The Ohio Historical Preservation Office, Terracon Consultants, Inc., and the chapters of the Sons and Daughters of the American Revolution have partnered with volunteers, historians, and genealogists to continue  adding data on our patriots.  

Shortly after the close of the Revolutionary War, the Northwest Territory opened for settlement.  New Americans streamed into the Ohio Country. Among them were Revolutionary War veterans. Two large sections of land were specifically set aside for veterans - the Virginia Military District and the United States Military District. The amount of land given a veteran varied depending on his rank and not all were qualified to receive land. Others chose not to live in the districts.  

It is estimated that Ohio is the final resting place for as many as 7,000 veterans.  An Interactive Live Results Dashboard identifies the patriots and maps the cemeteries and gravesites throughout the state. View the current progress (3,538 veterans as of today's date) by using the link to the dashboard on the Ohio History Connection website. The portal closes for review at the end of Memorial Day.  Final results will be published on the 4th of July!