presence. To repay the brokerage debts, all the Grant houses weresold, including Julia’s childhood home that they had inherited after her father died. The swords, trays, gifts from foreign dignitaries, and even his Civil War memorabilia were assigned to his creditors. Finally, in an effort to keep Julia from want and his children from obligation, Grant began writing his war memoirs. A week after the galleys were completed, he died.
Unlike Mary Lincoln, Julia Grant would be a very rich widow. Grant’s book earned more than $300,000 in the first year alone. She outlived her husband by seventeen years and even wrote her own memoirs, the first First Lady ever to do so. The handwritten manuscript was not discovered until seventy-five years after her death, locked in a trunk in a granddaughter’s attic.
Postscript: I F G ALENA , I LLINOIS, CLAIMED G RANT IN LIFE , N EW Y ORK C ITY CLAIMED HIM IN DEATH . G RANT’S WILL EXPLICITLY DIRECTED THAT HIS BELOVED J ULIA BE BURIED BY HIS SIDE, WHERE SHE HAD LAIN FOR NEARLY FORTY YEARS . T HEY ARE BOTH BURIED IN G RANT’S T OMB .
LUCY HAYES
1831–89
FIRST LADY: 1877–81
The Old-Fashioned New Woman
Lucy Webb was the quintessential old-fashioned girl from Ohio. Left fatherless as a baby, she was raised by a mother who was decidedly not old-fashioned. Mrs. Webb was a staunch admirer of feminist educator Mary Lyon and believed strongly that women should receive “higher learning.” Lucy, whether she wanted to or not, did not go to a traditional finishing school for girls, but an academic female seminary that is now connected with Ohio Wesleyan. There she learned the classics, Greek and Latin, geometry, science, history, and philosophy, at a time when teaching such advanced subjectsto women was controversial and even ridiculed. She was an apt student, but she had no ambitions.
At twenty, Lucy married Rutherford B. Hayes, who was ten years her senior. Also raised by a widowed mother, he had become a lawyer, thanks in large part to the generosity and mentoring of his uncle Sardis Birchard. The Hayeses’ marriage would be conventional, happy, and fruitful. Five of their eight children would survive to adulthood.
Lucy’s Legacy
Whether or not it was her personal decision to ban spirits in the White House, Lucy unquestionably subscribed to the practice. Always deeply religious, her well-publicized MORAL SUASION regarding temperance and strict Sabbath observation may have been mocked by some, but by and large she was perceived as an upstanding example of womanhood and well beloved by most. Her retirement years were spent in charitable activities. Every First Lady exerts a fair amount of moral example, whether overtly or in personal practice. Lucy’s morality was sincere, just more visible.
“Rud” Hayes was past forty and their family well underway when the Civil War began, but like many others at the time, he enlisted immediately and would rise to become a brevetmajor general. His was not merely a political or administrative command; Hayes served in the field and was wounded four times, once seriously. With Hayes’s wealthy and benevolent Uncle Sardis acting as surrogate grandfather, Lucy was free to join her husband in camp as often as possible, especially when he had been wounded. Her personal care freed other nurses to tend to other casualties. The soldiers and fellow officers alike grew to love the gentle lady who was happy to mother them and mend their uniforms. Rutherford and Lucy Hayes would always be beloved among the soldiers of the 23rd Ohio Infantry and would remain active in veteran affairs until they died.
Multi-wounded generals, especially lawyers and Republicans, were prime candidates for public office at the end of the Civil War, and Ohio Republicans duly elected Hayes to Congress and later made him governor of Ohio.
By the time Hayes was nominated for the presidency in 1876, Lucy was forty-six and past childbearing. Always a devout Methodist, she was proud
Unlike Mary Lincoln, Julia Grant would be a very rich widow. Grant’s book earned more than $300,000 in the first year alone. She outlived her husband by seventeen years and even wrote her own memoirs, the first First Lady ever to do so. The handwritten manuscript was not discovered until seventy-five years after her death, locked in a trunk in a granddaughter’s attic.
Postscript: I F G ALENA , I LLINOIS, CLAIMED G RANT IN LIFE , N EW Y ORK C ITY CLAIMED HIM IN DEATH . G RANT’S WILL EXPLICITLY DIRECTED THAT HIS BELOVED J ULIA BE BURIED BY HIS SIDE, WHERE SHE HAD LAIN FOR NEARLY FORTY YEARS . T HEY ARE BOTH BURIED IN G RANT’S T OMB .
LUCY HAYES
1831–89
FIRST LADY: 1877–81
The Old-Fashioned New Woman
Lucy Webb was the quintessential old-fashioned girl from Ohio. Left fatherless as a baby, she was raised by a mother who was decidedly not old-fashioned. Mrs. Webb was a staunch admirer of feminist educator Mary Lyon and believed strongly that women should receive “higher learning.” Lucy, whether she wanted to or not, did not go to a traditional finishing school for girls, but an academic female seminary that is now connected with Ohio Wesleyan. There she learned the classics, Greek and Latin, geometry, science, history, and philosophy, at a time when teaching such advanced subjectsto women was controversial and even ridiculed. She was an apt student, but she had no ambitions.
At twenty, Lucy married Rutherford B. Hayes, who was ten years her senior. Also raised by a widowed mother, he had become a lawyer, thanks in large part to the generosity and mentoring of his uncle Sardis Birchard. The Hayeses’ marriage would be conventional, happy, and fruitful. Five of their eight children would survive to adulthood.
Lucy’s Legacy
Whether or not it was her personal decision to ban spirits in the White House, Lucy unquestionably subscribed to the practice. Always deeply religious, her well-publicized MORAL SUASION regarding temperance and strict Sabbath observation may have been mocked by some, but by and large she was perceived as an upstanding example of womanhood and well beloved by most. Her retirement years were spent in charitable activities. Every First Lady exerts a fair amount of moral example, whether overtly or in personal practice. Lucy’s morality was sincere, just more visible.
“Rud” Hayes was past forty and their family well underway when the Civil War began, but like many others at the time, he enlisted immediately and would rise to become a brevetmajor general. His was not merely a political or administrative command; Hayes served in the field and was wounded four times, once seriously. With Hayes’s wealthy and benevolent Uncle Sardis acting as surrogate grandfather, Lucy was free to join her husband in camp as often as possible, especially when he had been wounded. Her personal care freed other nurses to tend to other casualties. The soldiers and fellow officers alike grew to love the gentle lady who was happy to mother them and mend their uniforms. Rutherford and Lucy Hayes would always be beloved among the soldiers of the 23rd Ohio Infantry and would remain active in veteran affairs until they died.
Multi-wounded generals, especially lawyers and Republicans, were prime candidates for public office at the end of the Civil War, and Ohio Republicans duly elected Hayes to Congress and later made him governor of Ohio.
By the time Hayes was nominated for the presidency in 1876, Lucy was forty-six and past childbearing. Always a devout Methodist, she was proud
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