Sandusky County, Ohio - Chapter 18: Spiegel, 1909

Nineteenth President Of The United

Memorials take many forms, and the gift to the State of Ohio, for the Ohio Archeological and Historical Society of that portion of Spiegel Grove, the beautiful homestead of President Hayes, through which runs for a half mile the old Harrison Trail of the War of 1812, is one of the most interesting, commendable and generous gifts of recent years.

Spiegel Grove, the beautiful twenty-five acre grove of native American trees is a portion of the historic site of the free city of the Neutral Nation of the Eries, who three centuries ago built two fortified towns on opposite sides of the Sandusky River. The site of this free city where later the Wyandots or Hurons made a village, was on the great natural runway of the earliest French explorers and missionaries and their Indian allies, in passing from the St. Lawrence and the Great Lakes to the Ohio and the Mississippi. This old French and Indian trail was along the westerly bank of the Sandusky-Scioto water course from Lake Erie to the Ohio River. Both passed through the old free city at the lower falls of the Sandusky, the trail extending for over one half mile through the present Spiegel Grove. This trail was traversed by the early Frenchmen and by French war parties with their Indian allies from Detroit, in their endeavor to expel the British from the Ohio country, and was the common meeting-ground of the war parties and exploring parties of both the French from Detroit and the British from Fort Pitt.

Knowledge of Lower Sandusky also comes from Captain Samuel Brady, the scout, whom Washington sent out for information upon the movements of the Indians of this region, and

Grove

Washington's interest in this locality was great and in 1782 his friend, General William Irvine, commandant at Fort Pitt, noted that a British post had been established at Lower Sandusky, giving this place its claim for Revolutionary honors

In General Harrison's advance to repel the invading British and Indians, he established forts and depots and constructed a military road following the line of the old French and Indian trail and the heavy wheels of his wagons have left a clearly defined course which is still easily distinguished in its meanderings through Spiegel Grove, although nearly one hundred years have elapsed since the present State road was laid out on a direct course, crossing and recrossing the old trail.

In the campaign of 1813, owing to the insecurity of Fort Stephenson, General Harrison selected as his headquarters Fort Seneca, nine miles up the river, whence he could make swift trips to Fort Stephenson, to Fort Meigs on the Maumee; to Huron and Cleveland. During this campaign, all the noted officers of the War of 1812 with the single exception of Andrew Jackson, traveled over this trail. General William Henry Harrison the victorious commander-in-chief, was inaugurated President of the United States in 1841; Colonel Richard M. Johnson of the Kentucky Mounted Riflemen, "the man who killed Tecumseh," was inaugurated as Vice President of the United States in 1837; Brigadier-General Lewis Cass who commanded a brigade served as Secretary of State in the cabinet of Buchanan; Governor Meigs of Ohio became Postmaster General in the cabinets of Madison and Monroe; and the vener-

Such famous Indians as Nicolas, the renegade Huron Chief; Pontiac, Tecumseh, Little Turtle and the Crane were frequenters of this old Harrison trail and occasional residents of this place. .

Under the treaty of 1817, the Indian title in Ohio was finally extinguished, and the land opened for settlement The place now known as Spiegel Grove became a portion of 'the northwestern quarter of Section 3 in the U. S. Reserve "Sandusky," which was entered by Josephus B. Stewart and William Oliver. When the patent was executed, however, by President Andrew Jackson in 1834, it was to their assignees Jacaues Hulburd, one of the first settlers of Lower Sandusky; and to the heirs of Martin Baum. After a partition by these owners, the first transfer was for an undivided half and was made in 1834, by which Sardis Birchard, the uncle of Rutherford B. Hayes, became the owner of about one half, including Spiegel Grove; and R. P. Buckland, who became a distinguished lawyer and soldier and who later

Hayes, became the owner of the remainder; their properties being separated by the old State Road from Lower Sandusky (Fremont) to Fort Ball (Tiffin) now known as Buckland Avenue.

Several years after the purchase of Spiegel Grove tract, Mr. Birchard removed his residence from the village to the country home of Mr. and Mrs. James Vallette, in a house built about 1828 and now known as Edgerton Place. It is near the site of Colonel Ball's victory over the Indians on the banks of Sandusky River, on July 30, 1813, two days before the attack on Fort Stephenson. It was to this house that Mrs. Hayes brought Colonel R. B. Hayes, of the Twenty-third Ohio, after his partial recovery from his severe wound at South Mountain, in the opening of the Antietam campaign in 1862. Mr. Birchard, on his way to and from the village daily passed his new purchase, noted the deep woods, its pools of clear standing water reflecting like mirrors (the German word for Spiegel) the great trees and tangled boughs and swaying vines, listened to the songs of birds, the hooting of owls and the mourning of the doves, conned over the legends of the place, smiled over its traditional ghosts and spooks, recognized many a likeness to the scenes of the German fairy tales dear to his childhood; named it Spiegel Grove and selected it for the site of the future home of his declining years with his nephew, Rutherford B. Hayes.

Sardis Birchard, this early patron of Spiegel Grove was born in Vermont, in 1801, and early left an orphan. Upon the marriage of his sister, Sophia, to Rutherford Hayes, the boy of II was adopted and went to live with them, and in 1817 was taken by them from Dummerston, Vermont, to Delaware, Ohio.

In 1822 occurred the death of Rutherford Hlayes and the birth of his son Rutherford Birchard Hayes, and young Sardis Birchard, then 21 years of age, in his turn assumed the care of the family and became the devoted guardian of his sister's son. He never married. He was a man of extensive culture, artistic tastes, great practical force of character, and of the highest social and benevolent qualities. He was active in public and corporate works of progress in northern Ohio - the improvement of navigation, of vessel building, of the Western Reserve and Maumee Turnpike, a national work; also of the Toledo, Norwalk and Cleveland Railway, of which he was at first the main support. In 1851 he organized a bank, which in 1863, he merged into the First National Bank of Fremont, standing fifth on the list of national banks, Mr. Birchard remain its president. He gave two public parks to the City of Fremont, endowed a public library for the use of the county and gave generously to the First Presbyterian and other churches of the city.

The house at Spiegel Grove was begun by Mr. Birchard in 1859 for the permanent home of his nephew and ward, who owing to his services in the army, in Congress and as Governor of Ohio did not occupy it till 1873, Mr. Birchard living there until that time and enjoying frequent joyful visits from his nephew and later from the latter's wife and young children.

And Representative Citizens

two and one half stories high, 'surrounded on three sides by a veranda, but in 1873 General Hayes added two frame buildings containing a kitchen and an office and library. In 1880 preparatory to his return home from the White House he built a substantial addition on the north, duplicating the original gabled brick front of the house and materially remodelled the interior. In 1889 further extensive changes were made, at which time the present large dining room, kitchens and several upper chambers were added. This date remains memorable in the family because before the alterations were finished the beautiful mistress of the house, who had looked forward eagerly to the large opportunities for hospitality, was stricken and died. Only two rooms of the old house now remain intact, the red parlor on the first floor and the ancestral room directly above it, which had been Mr. Birchard's chamber.

The house has high ceilings, spacious rooms with hardwood floors and many open fireplaces. A veranda eighty feet long and fourteen wide, so arranged as to make' three laps to the mile, extends in front of the whole house. From the center of the large entrance hall one can look up four stories to the observatory, the upper halls forming balconies opposite the stairways. On either side of the front door hang portraits of Sardis Birchard and of George Washington, the latter being an original painting by Gilbert Stuart. The two archways opening from the hall are draped with the regimental flags of Colonel Hayes in the war with Spain, and in the Phillipine insurrection; which take the place of his father's regimental flags of forty years earlier which are now carefully preserved in glass cases. Immediately behind, on a third archway, hang the "grandfather's guns" of the War of 1812, being the old flintlocks used by Rutherford Hayes of Vermont and James Webb of Kentucky. Opposite these, a glass case contains the side arms used by General Hayes during the War of the Rebellion; two swords, two pistols, a field glass and an empty revolver holster. General Hayes had drawn his revolver, but lost it when his horse was instantly killed and he himself badly injured while rallying his men during the morning surprise of Sheridan's Victory at Winches- ter. Eighteen Presidents of the United States, from Washington to Roosevelt, served as soldiers, but none other was wounded, with the single exception of James Monroe, when a young lieutenant at the battle of Trenton. General Hayes was wounded in battle six times, and had four horses shot under him during his four years' service, 1861-1865. A full length portrait of General Hayes in the uniform of a major-general hangs in one of the niches. The chimney-piece in the hall is hung with Indian tomahawks, totems, peace pipes, belts,wampum and mosaics. A silver plate presented to Mrs.. Hayes by the soldiers of the Twenty-third Regiment O. V. I., on the occasion of her silver wedding at the White House, is engraved with the log cabin in which Mrs. Hayes lived for two winters in her husband's camp in Virginia; and with verses inscribed to "Our Mother."

The dining-room opening to the right of the hall is forty-six feet long and connected by an open archway with a library room of the same length, where is stored the fine historical library of President Hayes. This room preserves an atmosphere of homelikeness and comfort and is indicative of the well rounded character and refined principles of the student who arranged it. The many thousand volumes of Americana include apparently everything which has been writen. In the drawing-room hang life-sized portraits of President Hayes, by Brown, and of Mrs. Hayes, by Andrews, and other choice portraits and landscapes. Books are here too in great profusion, many of them being first editions and invaluable autograph copies. Fine old mahogany furniture, a magnificent Chinese rug, embroideries, a facsimile of the desk on which Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence; six great vellum volumes of autographs; a bronze figure of Lincoln and the cast of his hand; seals used by Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Jackson, a cup made from Farragut's flagship, are interesting treasures of this room.

The red parlor to the left of the hall contains a full length portrait of the only daughter of the house, a water color by Turner, oil landscapes by Bierstadt and others.

one of the most beautiful parts of the grove. The furniture is of fine old mahogany and the books, and pictures of Mrs. Hayes remain exactly as arranged by General Hayes after her death.

One of the most beautiful rooms of the home is the great dining-room with large windows at each end looking upon the lawns. The shelved chimney piece over the large fireplace is devoted to fine examples of old Indian pottery, and elk horns, and the skull and jaws of a huge grizzly shot by Colonel Hayes. The two old mahogany sideboards are family heirlooms, descended from the Birchard and the Webb sides of the house respectively ; two mahogany serving-tables from the White House, purchased during Madison's administration, were bought in at a public sale of discarded furniture in 1881; as also was a handsome secretary, purchased during Lincoln's time and used in the President's cabinet room until its sale,with many other interesting relics, on the renovation of the White House after the death of President McKinley. Other furniture of the dining-room is a Korean cash box, studied with brass, swastika; and a second chest, superbly carved, fashioned from cabinet doors brought by Colonel Hayes from Peking. An antique clock which ticks circumspectly near the dining-room door was bequeathed to the President by his grandmother and brought hither from the ancestral Hayes homestead in Brattleboro, Vermont. On this clock stands the owl, which by dangling on the plumb-bob of the Washington Monument nearly caused the despair of the engineer in charge, who thought that his foundation had proved insufficent and that the monument was "wobbling."

Scarcely less than the rooms on the first floor, the uper chambers are crowded with historic and beautiful objects The ebony room contains furniture designed by a cousin, William Rutherford Mead, of the firm of McKim, Mead & White, and purchased by President Hayes for use in his little daughter's room at the White House and to be retained by her as a souvenir. The ancestral room has untold treasures from a colonial and antiquarian point of view; and other rooms are fitted with furniture and hangings collected by Colonel Hayes in the Orient. One of these; the Oriental room, contains a Chinese bed, a monumental affair carved inlaid and paneled with paintings on rice paper; while the Filipino room contains typical furniture, a console, a peacock dresser, and two canopied cane-bottomed bedsteads.

Upon General Hayes's personal assumption of the Spiegel Grove property in 1873, he began to improve and beautify the place, preserving and accentuating its natural advantage by clearing out indifferent trees, extending the lawns immediately about the house to let in the sunlight, opening vistas to throw into relief some superb old oak or elm; and planting the hemlock avenue and windbreaks of spruce and pines The handsome Japanese cypress and deciduous trees south of the house were sent thither from the Centennial Exposition in 1876, being among the earliest of such Japanese importations.

General Hayes took particular pleasure in gathering historic trees, among which were a Napoleon willow, the forebears of which were willows on Washington's grave at Mt. Vernon and Napoleon's at St. Helena; two oaks grown from acorns of the veritable Charter Oak of Hartford, Connecticut ; and tulip trees from the General Hayes would point out to interested visitors storied trees, like the one to which the savage Indians bound a captive maiden and built a fire about her, when a thunder storm burst and put out the flames. White traders hearing of the outrage sent a swift runner to Detroit to get an order for her release from the Crane, the Wyandot chief, and he returned in time to save the captive. Another tree with a tale is "Grandfathers," an oak with a large hole near its base, under which Mrs. Hayes's father camped one cold night during the War of 1812. The story ran that he and a comrade were sent out to forage for provisions. It was so bitterly cold that they could not make their way back to camp, and building a fire at the foot of this tree they slept there in the open. The soldiers in camp had their feet frozen that night, but this pair escaped such disaster. The old musket and hunting-horn of this Private James Webb, of the Kentucky Mounted Riflemen, are among the treasurers of the house.

Arconve Ayen Arson Rutherford 3B

West of the residence, in an open field adjoining Spiegel Grove, General Hayes laid out the Lucy Hayes Chapel in young walnut trees, with nave, transepts and tower - a chapel which he used to say would be worth looking at two hundred years hence

General Hayes moved the main entrance to Spiegel Grove from a point almost directly in front of the house to its present location at the northern entrance of the Harrison Trail, and laid out the winding driveway to the house. The entrance is further marked by a thirteeninch shell fired by the battleship Oregon at Morro Castle in the siege of Santiago de Cuba in the war with Spain, which failing to explode was later presented to Colonel Hayes by Admiral Clark, captain of the Oregon, after whom the Admiral Clark Oak was named, the group near the General Corbin Oak and the General Young Oak.

The main drive through Spiegel Grove follows the old Harrison Military Trail of the War of 1812, down which General Harrison brought his troops on his way to Fort Stephenson after Croghan's Victory. The road leaves Spiegel Grove by the southwest gateway, continuing down to the old French Spring, and on to Ball's Battlefield, Fort Seneca, Fort Hal! (Tiffin) and upper Sandusky to Franklinton, (now Columbus).

Of the many interesting events which have occurred at Spiegel Grove, the more prominent were the meeting and greeting of General Hayes by his old neighbors and friends in Fremont. on the evening of his third nomination for Governor of Ohio in 1875, after what he had considered as his permanent retirement from public life. The next year this was followed by another gathering on the occasion of his last visit home prior to his departure from the State Capital at Columbus to be inaugurated as President of the United States. Six months later occurred the greatest demonstration in the history of the town, in the annual reunion of his regiment, the Twety-third Ohio, on the 14th of September, 1877, followed as it the giant oaks of Spiegel Grove. At this table also was General Philip H. Sheridan, the favorite battle general of the War of the Rebellion; and the four colonels of the regiment in the persons of General W. S. Rosecrans, E. P. Scammon, Rutherford B. Hayes and J. M. Comly, together with the first lieutenant-colonel, later Justice Stanley Matthews of the Supreme Court. The five oak trees were christened for the five guests. Major William McKinley was the orator ofthe day, and other speakers included Chief Justice Morrison R. Waite and James A. Garfield, after whom in later years were named the McKinley Oaks, the Chief Justice Waite Oak and the Garfield Maple, to commemorate visits by them. The finest elm in the grove was christened the General Sherman Elm, on the occasion of his visit after his memorable trip escorting President Hayes and party to the Pacific coast and the Texan frontier posts. President Hayes was the first Chief Executive office. On the return of President Hayes to Fremont, after leaving the White House, he was greeted most cordially by his fellow townspeople and escorted to his home where he delivered a short address in which he expressed his love for his old home and his neighbors of many years standing. He said in the course of this talk:

"This is a good place to find an answer to the question which is often heard: What is to become of the man, what is he to do, where is his place, who having been Chief Magistrate of the Republic retires at the end of his term to private life? It seems to me the answer is near at hand and sufficient. Let him like every other good American citizen be willing promptly to bear his part in every useful work that will promote the welfare, the happiness and the progress of his family, his town, his State, and his country. With this disposition he will have work enough to do and that sort of work which yields more individual contentment and gratification than the more conspicuous employments of public life from which he has returned." ment Association, President Hayes presided at an enormous gathering at the exercises of the dedication of the Soldiers' Monument in Fort Stephenson park to commemorate the services of the soldiers of all wars of Sandusky County, but particularly in memory of Major George Croghan and the gallent defenders of Fort Stephenson on the 2d of August, 1813.

The sudden and unexpected death of President Hayes's beloved wife, June 21, 1889, came as a great shock not only to himself but to the community at large, and a great number of friends gathered at Spiegel Grove to show their respect and love. His comrades of 'the Twenty-third Ohio, serving as guard of honor, marched down the Old Harrison Trail en route to Oakwood Cemetery. A little less than four years later, another great concourse gathered at Spiegel Grove out of respect to the departed soldier and statesman. Chief among the mourners was the ex-President, and now again President-elect, Grover Cleveland, who made the long journey in the midst of furious winter storms to show his frequently expressed admiration and regard. With President Cleveland, in the red parlor, were gathered also members of the Cabinet who represented President Harrison; Generals Corbin, Breckenridge and Lud- * dington, who represented the United States Army; Governor William McKinley of Ohio and the State officers and members of the Ohio Legislature; the official representatives of the Loyal Legion, of which President Hayes was commander-in-chief; and representatives of many other military, literary, educational and philanthropic organizations with which he was connected. A deep snow covered the ground, trees and shrubery so that the scene was a most striking one, to which the gaudy coloring of the military trimmings, indicative of the different arms of the military service, added much to make it a scene long to be remembered. Four years after the death of President Hayes, his former regimental.comrade and aide, William McKinley, as President of the United States, was an honored guest at Spiegel Grove on the occasion of the marriage of Fanny, the only daughter of the house, to Ensign Harry Eaton Smith, United States Navy. On the following day the reunion of the Twenty-third Regiment was for the second time held at Spiegel Grove. Mrs. McKinley and the ladies invited to meet her occupied sofas and chairs on the roof of the broad veranda from which they looked down on the speaker's stand constructed around a group of five white oaks, since called the McKinley oaks, from which stand President McKinley and other prominent men spoke.

On the ninetieth anniversary of the defense of Fort Stephenson, August 1, 1903, a memorial tablet was dedicated on old Fort Stephenson and the George Croghan Chapter, D. A. R. held a reception at Spiegel Grove in honor of Mrs. Charles W. Fairbanks, the president general of the D. A. R.; and Mrs. O. J. Hodge, the Ohio regent. An address was delivered by the Hon. C. R. Williams of Indiana. An elm was planted on the knoll by the Daughters, and ivy from Warwick Castle on one of the great oaks, by the Colonial Dames of Toledo. Again on August 2, 1906, the remains of Major George Croghan were reinterred at the foot of the monument erected in his honor on Fort Stephenson Park; and the grave covered with myrtle taken from the Croghan family burying ground at Locust Grove, near Louisville, Kentucky, where Croghan had been originally interred after his death in 1849. Addresses were made at Fort Stephenson by the Hon. Chas. W. Fairbanks, vice-president of the United States; Gov. A. L. Harris of Ohio, and others, after which a public reception was held in their honor at Spiegel Grove.

Just before starting on his speaking campaign during the Presidential canvass of 1908, Judge William H. Taft and his charming wife (who as Miss Helen Herron had been a frequent visitor at the Hayes home both in Ohio and at Washington) came to spend a day at Spiegel Grove as the guests of Colonel Hayes, the present owner. They were conveyed from the landing place at Port Clinton on Lake Frie in automobiles to Fort Stephenson, and then on to Spiegel Grove, where they were entertained at luncheon and in looking over the old house. Judge Taft was advised by his host of the custom of naming trees after distinguished visitors, and after having had pointed out to him the General Sherman elm, the Cleveland hickory, the Garfield Maple and the McKinley Oaks, he was invited to select his tree. He promptly advanced to one of the grandest oaks in the grove, immediately in front of the mansion, a tree some thirteen feet in circumference and, placing his hand upon it, said with a Taft smile: "This is about my size!' since which the time the tree has been known as the Taft Oak.

The Cleveland Hickory was also named by the laying on of hands. On the occasion of the attendance of President Cleveland at the funeral of President Hayes, the family carriage horses became somewhat fractious owing to the crisp air and the music of the bands so that as President Cleveland was about to enter the carriage the horses made a plunge forward. President Cleveland temporarily alighted, and while the horses were being brought under control he placed his right hand upon a thrifty shell-bark hickory, thereupon deemed especially appropriate to be named in honor of the great Democrat.

On October 18, 1908, the occasion of the annual State conference of the Ohio Daughters of the American Revolution, a brilliant reception was held at Spiegel Grove. During the summer months ever since the return of the President and Mrs. Hayes from Washington in 1881, Spiegel Grove has been the scene of many delightful gatherings of their guests, and this custom has been continued to the present time. Since the inauguration of the National Rifle contests, at Camp Perry, on Lake Erie, the visiting teams, especially the members of the teams representing the army, navy and marine corps have been frequent visitors for week-end parties during the period of the contests.

Thus there is no absence at Spiegel Grove of that tradition which Ruskin thought would "rob your rivers of their laughter and your flowers of their light." Nature and artifice working hand in hand have stamped beauty and story upon its every detail. One feels that the influence of the early denizens of the place still haunts it; that over house and grounds broods a spirit of beautiful other days when a sturdy man and a lovely woman who had received the highest honors in the land lived there, leaving behind them traditions of gracious manners, high ideals and noble characters as a legacy to their children, townspeople and countrymen. Of memorial parks such as Spiegel Grove this land has all too few.

The deed from Colonel Hayes to the State of Ohio for the Harrison Trail State Park, now a portion of Spiegel Grove, conveys about one half of the Spiegel Grove property and reads: "To have and to hold to the State for. the use and benefit of the Ohio Archeological and Historical Society, so long as the premises shall be maintained and used as a State park, in which the old French and Indian trail along the Sandusky-Scioto water course from Lake Erie to the Ohio River, later known as the Harrison Military Trail of the War of 1812, shall be preserved in its present location and maintained as a drive, and in which the trees, shrubs and flowers now growing in said park shall be preserved and cared for, and together with such other trees, shrubs and flowers as may hereafter be planted in said park shall be properly marked with the scientific and common names, so as to be instructive and interesting to visitors."

Furthermore: "The Grantor reserves the right to transfer the remains of Rutherford B. Hayes and Lucy W. Hayes to the knoll in the premises hereby conveyed in Spiegel Grove, to be placed in a granite block beneath the monument heretofore designed and erected by Rutherford B. Hayes in Oakwood Cemetery, Fremont. The said monument, together with such improvements as shall be placed around it, shall be preserved and maintained forever, but no building or structure save the monument, other than a suitable enclosure from the public roads, or around the monument shall be erected in said park without the consent of the grantor in writing."

In the will made by President Hayes but a short time before his death, he bequeathed, at the request of his children, Spiegel Grove and all the personal property connected therewith to them to be held in common without sale or division. Five years later, the Ohio Archeological and Historical Society, of which President Hayes was the president at the time of

258 HISTORY OF his death, issued a confidential circular with a view of securing the property with its valuable library and collections, which had been tendered them on the sole condition of raising an endowment sufficient to preserve and care for the property. In this circular the society said: "This offer of the family is unusual for its liberality, and most worthy of commendation for the filial desire it expressess to perpetuate the memorial to loved and honored parents. The place known as Spiegel Grove is of great historical interest, being located in the old Indian reservation or free territory maintained at the Lower Rapids of the Sandusky River, for a long time prior to the Revolutionary War. The old Harrison Trail, so called, a military road, leads from Fort Stephenson to Fort Seneca passes through the Grove and is preserved as its principal driveway. Of all the homes of our twenty-four presidents, covering a period of 110 years, the only ones that have been preserved are those of Washington at Mount Vernon; Jefferson at Monticello; Madison at Montpellier; Jackson at the Hermitage; and Lincoln's modest home in the sity of Springfield. * * * © * "But int every case mentioned more or less time had elapsed before the homes were acquired and put in a state of preservation, and few or no personal relics or memorials were secured. Spiegel Grove is now in a perfect state of preservation, and all of the valuable historical effects of President Hayes remain there intact. Unquestionably this is the largest and most complete and perhaps most valuable collection of documents, papers and books ever left by any of our presidents. President Hayes was a great reader and a man of scholarly tastes and attainments. He acquired the finest library of American history perhaps ever owned by any private individual, and during his public life he preservel all papers and memoranda in an orderly and accessible form."

The society, however, did not succeed in raising the required endowment and the entire Spiegel Grove property, library and collection, became the property of Col. Webb C. Hayes, by deed from the other heirs in the settlement of the estate in 1899, since which time he has maintained it as the Hayes family summer home. Colonel Hayes became much interested in locating and marking for preservation the old French and Indian trail, the northern half of which was later known as the Harrison Military Trail of the War of 1812. This trail extends for over half a mile of its length through Spiegel Grove; and in the numerous conferences with the officers of the Ohio Archeological and Historical Society looking to its preservation, the eventual disposition of the Spiegel Grove property was again brought up. On October 7, 1908, a formal offer was made by Colonel Hayes 'to deed to the state or to your society, the road or drive in Spigel Grove now known as the Harrison Trail, together with all the adjacent tract of land (about ten acres), to be forever preserved as a state park." Colonel Hayes added a clause which partially revived the original proposition, "that in the event of your society securing the erection of a suitable fireproof building on said Spiegel Grove property, I will transfer to your society or the state a suitable site therefor in said Spiegel Grove, together with all papers, books and manuscripts left by my father for permanent preservation in such building," together with his own very large collection ; and expressed the property, including the residence should be under the care of the society, though maintained as the Hayes family home, typical of the American home of the last half of the nineteenth century.

Not only has everything been preserved as it was left by President Hayes at the time of his death, but his son, Colonel Hayes, has added very largely through his indefatigable efforts in collecting articles of military and historical interest gathered not only during his service in the army in Cuba, Porto Rico, the Philippines and China; but in his numerous journeyings since leaving the military service, in China, the Orient, South America and in several trips around the world. The care of the grounds has likewise received constant attention; interesting trees and shrubs have been planted along the edge of the public highways in such a manner as not to detract from the beauty of the natural grove, but yet screen the highways from the house. The knoll to the south has been carefully planted with appropriate ever- Lower down on the knoll, marked by a great greens and deciduous trees and shrubs, includ- granite bowlder in memory of departed war ing an enormous border of thododendrous. In horses of President Hayes and his son, lie the order further to add to the privacy of the enclo- remains of the only war horse of President sure of the knoll it is separated from the remain- Hayes which survived the battles of the war, der of the grove by a substantial iron fence | +. ar " screen with vines, two little lakes and a run- Old Whitey," a Hero of Nineteen Battles.