OHIO STATEWIDE FILES OH-FOOTSTEPS Mailing List ----------------------------------------------------------------------- USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ OH-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest Volume 99 : Issue 134 Today's Topics: #1 John Shoemaker [jaxdawg@accessclub.com (Mark Rowde] #3 LUCY WEBB HAYES [leaann1@bellsouth.net] ------------------------------ X-Message: #1 Date: Thu, 4 Mar 1999 17:58:16 -0500 From: jaxdawg@accessclub.com (Mark Rowden) Subject: John Shoemaker From the History of Tuscarawas County, Ohio 1884: John Shoemaker, farmer, PO Tuscarawas, is a native of Germany, born November 3, 1819, son of Peter and Eva (Espenser) Shoemaker, also natives of Germany, the latter of whom is still living in her 83d year, and is residing with a daughter in this country. They emigrated to America, stopped for a time in New York, thence came to this township in 1851, where Peter followed farming. Of their 3 children, our subject is the eldest. He was educated at the common schools of Germany, where he worked at farming until 17 years old, and then for 10 years worked by the month. He came to America in 1839, locating in PA; then in this county in 1848. For nearly a year after, worked by the day for Josiah Walton. In 1849, he bought ninety-nine acres of land and now owns 182 acres, highly cultivated, on which he has erected two large barns, and a residence at the cost of $3,000. He was married in 1848 to Elizabeth, daughter of Adam and Elizabeth Engle, natives of Germany. The six children by this union are as follows: John, a farmer in this township; Catherine, wife of John Shoemaker, proprietor of a boot and shoe store; Jacob, married, a farmer in Rush Township; Mary, wife of Eugene Lehn, of this township; and Philip, a farmer; and Charles, at home. Mrs. Shoemaker died in 1869, and in 1871 our subject was united in marriage to Barbara, a daughter of Nicholas and Catherine Engle, the latter of whom is in her 77 year. The result of this union has been two children - Joseph and Benjamin. Mr. and Mrs. Shoemaker are both member of the Lutheran Church, and the form is President of the Board of Trustees. He is a charitable, kindly disposed man, and is held in high esteem by his neighbors and friends. ------------------------------ X-Message: #3 Date: Fri, 05 Mar 1999 01:42:37 -0800 From: leaann1@bellsouth.net Subject: LUCY WEBB HAYES Historical Collections Of Ohio Henry Howe LL. D. Sandusky County LUCY HAYES (WEBB) Lucy Ware Webb Hayes was born August 28, 1831, in Chillicothe, Ohio, at that time the Capital of the State. She was of good patriotic pioneer stock. Her father was Dr. James Webb, a native of Kentucky, and son of Isaac Webb, a Revolutionary soldier of Virginia, who settled in Kentucky about 1790. On her mothers side she was of Puritan ancestry. Her mother, Maria Cook, was the daughter of Isaac Cook, a Revolutionary soldier of Connecticut, who emigrated to the old Northwest territory about ten years before Ohio became a State. A native of Ohio herself, both of her parents were born in the west. All four of her great-grandfathers served in the Revolutionary war, in regiments of the Connecticut or Virginia lines of the Continental army. Awards of land, made to them in return for military service rendered as officers in these regiments, led to the ultimate transfer of the family residence to Kentucky and Ohio. Her father, Dr. James Webb, when quite young, served in the war of 1812 as a member of the Kentucky mounted riflemen. When she, his only daughter, was but two years old, he died in Lexington Kentucky, whither he had gone from his Ohio hometo arrange for manumitting slaves of his inheritance, with the intention of sending them to Liberia. This visit took place during the terrible year of the cholera scourge, and being a physician, he lingered among his old time friends with a loyalty unto death, giving them care and medical attendance until himself stricken fatally by the disease. Her mother was a woman of unusual strength of character and of deep religious convictions. After the death of her husband she removed to Delaware, in order to near the Wesleyan University, where her two sons, Joseph and James, were educated. Her fortune 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, in 1847, and graduated in 1850. While in attendance at this institution she joined the Methodist Episcopal Church, of which she ever remained a faithful and devoted member. Before she had finished her school-life in Cincinnati, her mother removed to the city, and occupied a home on Sixth street, near Race, where the family resided while her two brothers were completing their medical studies. Here she was wedded to Rutherford B. Hayes, a young lawyer of the city, December 30, 1852. The marriage ceremony was performed by her old instructor, Rev. L.D. McCabe, D.D., of the Ohio Wesleyan University, who also attended the twenty-fifth anniversary of the wedding while Mrs. Hayes was mistress of the Presidential mansion in Washington. When the war broke out, her husband and both of her brothers immediately entered the army, and from that time until the close of the war her home 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 in Virginia, and after the battle at South Mountain, where he was badly wounded, she hastened east and joined him at Middletown, Md., and later spent much time in the hospitals near the battlefields of South Mountain and Antietam. It is no marvel that the soldiers of her husbands regiment revered her, and that she was made a member of the Army of West Virginia, the badge of which society she always prized very highly. The Twenty-third regiment of Ohio Volunteer Infantry presented her, on the occasion of her silver wedding, with a silver plate, on which is engraved the following lines: To thee our Mother, on 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, Well bribe old father time to spare his gift. Below the inscription is a sketch of the log hut erected as Col. Hayes headquarters during the winter of 1862-63. Mrs. Hayes regard for the soldiers of the Union was as enduring as intense. How often has she said, We must go to that funeral, he was a soldier; and the widows and orphans of the soldier never appealed to her in vain. Describing the great procession in New York, in April 1889, her eyes glowed as she said: But the veterans ought not to have been at the rear, they earned it all. After the close of the war Mr. Hayes was elected to the Thirty-ninth and Fortieth Congresses and held his seat until nominated for Governor. Three terms he filled the latter office, and during all those years Mrs. Hayes enjoyed an experience and exerted an influence which with her natural abilities wonderfully fitted her for the position of lady of the White House. She had the conscience and the courage of her convictions. While presiding over the White House she kept strictly to her temperance principles, and with the co-operation of President Hayes, banished wine and other liquors entirely from their State dinners, as she had always done from her private table. Derided by the frivolous, and slightingly spoken of by small minded politicians, she let them talk, but maintained her loyalty to herself and her God. Her example has since been an encouragement and an inspiration to all temperance workers. No woman of this century will have a more glorious name in the list of human benefactors and staunch adherents to principle, than she, when their history is hereafter written. Speaking of her life at the White House, The Evening Star, of Washington, says: Few women would have attempted what she did successfully, to entertain entirely without the use of wines at the table. The persons connected with the official household of the president during the four years of the Hayes administration were all devoted to Mrs Hayes. Several of the present officials were at the White House at that time and their recollection of her is coupled with a warm personal regard. Senators, Democrats and Republicans, were often heard to give expression to most extravagant compliments of her grace as a hostess. Among her warmest friends and most ardent admirers were such extreme southern men as the late Alexander H. Stephens, Gen. John B. Gordon and Gen Wade Hampton. Mrs. Hayes was scarcely above the medium height though she gave the impression of being tall. There was in her person that majesty, sprightliness and grace which correspond to the qualities of conscience, energy and love in her nature. Her features were regular, the mouth a little large, but possessing a very charming mobility of expression. Her abundant and beautiful black hair was worn after the fashion of her girlhood time. Her complexion was rose brunette, and her fine eyes, very bright and gentle in expression, were that species of dark hazel which is often mistaken for black. Her beauty was very lasting. Time dealt gently with her. The favorite portrait of her was taken in 1877, after she was mother of eight children, two of whom had grown to manhood, and were voters. One of the best pictures of her was taken after she was a grandmother. In matters of personal attire she had exquisite taste, and did not follow the fashions blindly. She was modest and unobtrusive in her demeanor; yet when circumstances placed her in prominent positions, she knew how to carry herself with dignity and grace. She was always equal to the situation; and when she became the first lady in the land she was still simple, hearty, true, and unspoiled. Her home life was a happy one. She looked after her husbands interests with wifely constancy, and card for her children with motherly affection and tenderness. Leaving the White House in 1881, the family went to Fremont, and settled down at Speigel Grove, the beautiful place bequeathed to General Hayes by his uncle, Sardis Birchard. Mrs. Hayes first attention was always given to her home and her family, but in church work, she was no laggard. She gave of her time and her means as she was able. In the Womens Home Missionary Society she was specially interested, was its president almost from its organization, and spoke and acted in its public meetings with efficiency and success. She sympathized with the suffering and oppressed everywhere. When her husband was Governor of the State, she took an active interest in all of its organized charities, and was a leader among the originators of the Soldiers and Sailors Orphans Home. She was also a member of the Womens Relief Corps of the State of Ohio. To her husband and herself, the Methodist Episcopal Church in Fremont is largely indebted for its beautiful church edifice. Eight years of beautiful private life were granted to her, years which were filled to the brim with joy and occupation. On the 21st of June, 1889, as she sat by her bedroom window sewing, she was stricken with apoplexy, resulting in paralysis. For four days she lay unconscious; then came the announcement of her death. Upon the 28th, a vast multitude came to look upon her dear face for the last time. She was bourne out of the doors of her beautiful home by her four sons and by four of her nephews and cousins. The surviving soldiers of her husbands old regiment, the 23d O.V.V.I., marched as her guard of honor, followed by a great procession of the Comrades of the G.A.R., of friends and of neighbors, to the quiet, final resting place in Oakwood Cemetery, near her home at Fremont. Probably no woman ever lived who was more widely known and who knew more persons in all walks of life than Mrs. Hayes. Certainly no one was ever more widely mourned. Tributes to her worth came by the thousand to her family, in the press, in letters, and in other forms. -------------------------------- End of OH-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest V99 Issue #134 *******************************************