Civil War Blog

Posted By Norman Gasbarro on March 18, 2012

HENRY KEISER, 92, DIED SUDDENLY WEDNESDAY

LYKENS, March 1933.– Henry Keiser, 92, oldest male resident of Lykens, died suddenly at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Daisy Long, South Second Street, Wednesday night at 10:45, death having been caused by a heart attack.

Mr. Keiser, a veteran of the Civil War, is widely known as the last survivor of the Lykens Post, Grand Army of the Republic [G.A.R.].  He was born in Gratz, 26 Oct 1840, and was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Keiser.  His father was of German descent.  His mother before marriage was Miss Elizabeth Hoffman, a granddaughter of John Peter Hoffman, one of the first settlers of Lykens Valley.

He attended school in Centre County and Elizabethville, receiving a good common school education.  At the age of 17 he entered the printing office of Daniel Hoffman, where he was employed until April 1861.  At this time he enlisted at Lykens for three months service in Company E, Tenth Pennsylvania Volunteers [10^th Pennsylvania Infantry] under Capt. E. G. Savage.  This regiment formed part of Gen. Patterson’s division.

He was mustered into service at Harrisburg and spent three months in field service.  At the expiration of that term he was again employed in the printing office at Lykens and in which he worked until July 1861.

In 1861, he again enlisted under Co. H. L. Cake and Capt. F. Douden, of Lykens [96^th Pennsylvania Infantry], and from that time took part in all remaining important battles of the great conflict.

In one of the last battles in which he participated he sustained a wound of the hip which necessitated confinement in an army hospital for three weeks.

Upon his release he again joined the regiment and was present at the surrender of General Lee in April 1865.  He participated in the Grand Review of the troops which took place in Washington, D.C., and was mustered out of service in July 1865.

He returned to the Lykens printing office in which he was employed until 1873.  In this year he was engaged as a supply clerk of the Lykens Valley Coal Company and held that position for 25 years.

While on furlough in Harrisburg in 1864, he was united in marriage to Miss Sarah Workman who preceded him in death a number of years ago.  Mr. Keiser’s politics was Republican and for nine years in Wiconisco Township served in the capacity of School Director.  After moving from Wiconisco to Lykens in 1896 he was again elected as a member of the Lykens Board of Education, serving for a three-year term.  For many years he was also Secretary of Lykens Borough.

He is survived by the following children:  Claude Keiser, Lykens; Austin Keiser, Jenkintown; Harry Keiser, Philadelphia; William Keiser, Arizona; Mrs. Daisy Long, Lykens; Mrs. Anzella Dodd, Wiconisco; and Mrs. Cora McLin, Knoxville, Tennessee.

Funeral services will he held from the home of his daughter, Mrs. William Long, South Second Street, Monday afternoon at 2 o’clock, with Rev. Charles E. Boraston, pastor of the Lykens Methodist Church of which he was a member, will officiate.  Burial will be made in the I.O.O.F. Cemetery.

The undated obituary of Henry Keiser who died in 1933 was supplied by Sally Reiner of the Lykens-Wiconisco Historical Society.  Many prior posts on this blog have discussed the life and Civil War service of Henry Keiser.  To access to those posts, click here.

Category: Research, Resources, Stories | Comments Off on Henry Keiser, 92, Died Suddenly Wednesday
Tags: Elizabethville, G.A.R., Gratz Borough, Keiser family, Lykens Borough, Regiments, Wiconisco, Workman family

Posted By Norman Gasbarro on March 17, 2012

Wood's Theatre, Cincinnati

In the post yesterday, there was speculation on how Laura Keene got to Cincinnati after she was released from arrest in Harrisburg.  The story of how she acted immediately after the Lincoln assassination on 14 April 1865 has been told here in a series of posts.  The goal has been to determine whether the story of the “bloody dress” was true – whether she raced to the State Box and cradled Abraham Lincoln‘s head in her lap, thus creating the most “sacred” of the “bloody relics” of the assassination.  If the story is to be accepted (and even if it isn’t), there can be little doubt that the dress she was wearing in Act III of Our American Cousin left Washington with her – despite the difficulties she must have encountered in escaping.  The dress, bloody or not, was in one of the many trunks taken off the train by officials at the Harrisburg train station when she was arrested there, and surely the trunks were put back on the train when she journeyed to Cincinnati.  Today’s post starts with the assumption that the Act III dress arrived in Cincinnati with her and was at Wood’s Theatre with her other belongings.  It then looks at reports on what happened to the dress until the time it was supposedly partitioned and distributed.

Links to the other posts in this series can be found at the foot of this post.

The first time Laura Keene‘s Act III dress was reported seen outside of Washington, D.C., was about one week after the assassination.  The report was by a “Mrs. Eldridge” who was a member of the stock company at Wood’s Theatre in Cincinnati.  However, Mrs. Eldridge supposedly reported this more than thirty years after the fact in a letter she wrote to John Creahan, the first biographer of Keene:

I was never a member of Miss Keene’s company… consequently I knew but very little about her.  I met her first in April, 1865, the week after the assassination of the lamented Lincoln., when she came to play an engagement at Wood’s Theatre, Cincinnati, where I was a member of the stock company.  She then told me the entire story of the assassination, and how she went into the box at Ford’s Theatre, Washington, and held the head of the murdered president.  She also gave me a piece of the dress she wore at the time.  I cannot now find the scrap, as it is more than thirty years since that sad event took place. (p. 135)

Both Henneke (p. 217-218) and Bryan (p. 141) reported the tale in their Keene biographies.  Neither one mentioned Louisa Eldridge by name in the text, and Henneke referred to her only as “Mrs. Eldridge” in the end notes.  Bryan neglected to indicate that the information was from Creahan (no end note).  The original of the letter upon which Creahan based the story has not been seen.

Louisa Eldridge

Mrs. Eldridge was Louisa [Harwood] Eldridge, the wife of a Philadelphia shipping merchant, David W. Eldridge, who, when things went bad for the family finances, decided to pursue an acting career.  Her first job was working for P. T. Barnum, the entertainment huckster famous for the phrase, “there’s a sucker born every minute.”  In 1865, she was a relatively new actress on the scene.  She later played with Keene in Boston at the Globe Theatre – she couldn’t remember whether it was 1868 or 1869 (Creahan, p. 135) – but then gravitated toward roles on the New York stage, where she became typecast as an old woman.  Because of these later roles, she was known as “Aunt Louisa.”  Two of Louisa Eldridge‘s children had acting careers – daughter Lillie Eldridge, and son Preston Eldridge, the latter making a name for himself in Vaudeville.

Louisa’s father, William Harwood, was a Philadelphia politician.  In a interview given in 1897, she never once mentioned Laura Keene – but instead produced a pair of “star spangled stockings” supposedly given to her by actor Edwin Booth when she was in a show with him.  She revered Edwin Booth.  She described the job she had for P.T. Barnum, working at his museum in Philadelphia, as one in which she was called upon to play all sorts of roles – including the parts of young boys.  The dozen or so names Louisa Eldridge “dropped” during the interview included many of the stars of the day who she had played with – and she named many of the cities as well – including Cincinnati and Washington.  Of the many plays she performed and roles she had described, none concerned Laura Keene.

Harry Hawk

The next report comes from Harry Hawk.  It actually preceded the Eldridge report by about four years.  In an interview he gave in 1893 around the anniversary of the Lincoln assassination and published in the Bangor Daily Whig and Courier (ME), he stated the following:

Laura Keene was the star of the night and in some way now unknown she gained access to the President”s box after the shooting.  She held his head in her lap and the gown she wore as Florence Trenchard was ensanguined by his gore.  She played her next engagement in Cincinnati and had the bad taste to hang the gown on exhibition in the lobby of the theatre, but public opinion was so adverse to this show that she was compelled to take it away.

This is the only known report that Laura Keene attempted to display the Act III dress.  Note that Harry Hawk, who was on the only actor on the stage in view of the audience when the assassination occurred, indicated that it was now [in 1893] unknown how Laura Keene gained access to the State Box.  This comment seems almost sarcastic and the indication that the “display” of the dress was in “bad taste” is the only one of its kind found; it points directly at Keene as a perpetrator of the “bloody dress” legend, or at the very least, someone who was trying to benefit from the legend.

Harry Hawk‘s reluctance to speak out prior to the 1890s, was explained in another interview he gave about a year later in 1894 which was published in the Atlanta Constitution:

 Why Hawk Has Kept Silent.

“Why have I never told this story before?  Because I loved Edwin Booth as much as I worshipped Abraham Lincoln.  Booth was very kind to me and I knew that the sorrow of his life was his brother’s awful deed.  I knew too that if I told the story he would hear of it, or some one would show him the paper and he would be grieved….”

The story he related was the whole story of what happened the night of the assassination and had little to do with Laura Keene.  It was Hawk’s reluctance to identify Booth that led to his own arrest. Everyone loved Edwin Booth.  Few people loved Laura Keene.  Remember too that in the year after the assassination, Laura Keene took Edwin Booth to court over the rights to Our American Cousin – and Laura Keene lost that legal fight.

The final connection between Harry Hawk and Laura Keene was not in the Cincinnati engagement of 1865.  A few years later in 1873, when Laura’s career had declined to the point where the only work she could get was playing in small Pennsylvania towns practically no one heard of, Laura hired Harry Hawk to be her manager as well as act in her company.  John Lutz had died several years earlier and Laura’s daughter Emma Taylor, while trying some of the managerial chores, was not able to do all the things that a male manager could do.  So, Harry Hawk had the responsibilities dropped on him, something he was not used to doing, but he was grateful for the work.  He had trouble getting jobs elsewhere and Laura had trouble getting people to work with her.  By 1873, Laura was seen as a curiosity.  She frequently cancelled performances because of her health.  Then it happened.  On 4 July 1873 while performing in Tidioute, Pennsylvania, a small community of 4000 on a out-of-the-way railroad line, Laura Keene had a massive hemorrhage on the stage of the Opera House.  Harry Hawk was there.  The performing was over for her and Emma Taylor made the arrangements to have her moved to New Jersey where she died a few months later, 4 November 1873.  Hawk was left to fend for himself.

At Wood’s Theatre in Cincinnati in the days after the assassination, the only reports of the “bloody dress” came from the two individuals named above – Louisa Eldridge and Harry Hawk – and those reports were given many years later.  But there was evidence that the public had latched onto the “bloody dress” story.  Henneke notes that Laura Keene was upset by the public’s quest for the dress, but gives no specific examples.  His report that Mark Twain described the auction of Thomas Nast‘s collections of drawings and autographs as thus:

A letter written by Lincoln, and which was laid over a piece of white silk bearing a faded red stain, sold for $38.  The attached certificate state that the silk was from the dress of Laura Keene, worn on the night of Lincoln’s assassination, and that the stain was made by his blood.  (p. 219).

Henneke gives as the source of this item, Volume 2, page 313, of the autobiography of Mark Twain [Samuel Clemens].  The end note states it was published in 1924 – well after Laura and both her daughters had died – so she couldn’t have read about it in 1924.  Did a Thomas Nast auction take place in a year close to 1865 where a piece of Laura’s dress was sold?  At this time, no specific contemporaneous reference has been found.

When it was realized that she had the dress on which the president had bled his life away, she received offers to sell it, to exhibit it, to capitalize on each browning spot.  Her refusal made no difference to some.  They simply exhibited dresses they had and claimed they were hers.  Pieces of cloth with stains on them were sold to the public and letters attesting to their authenticity were forged in Laura’s name.  (Henneke, p. 218-219).

Bryan went one step further:

In the beginning, as with the curious actress [a reference to Louisa Eldridge], Laura determined to give the quest for “the dress”  little consideration, but as time went on and these people became more persistent, each request, each offer, was like an electric shock to her sensibilities.  Even worse were those who thought she was wearing the gown and attempted to take swatches of it right off her person.  It was bad enough to have them pawing her gowns, but it was inconceivable to Laura that anyone could really think that she would wear the dress again. (p. 142).

As with Henneke‘s description, the Bryan narrative is weak on specifics.  And Bryan provides no end note giving the source of the information – and there are no reference dates for when all of this was supposed to occur.

The “final” part of this tale tells of Laura’s finally getting rid of the dress.  Again, with no dates, and short on documentation, Henneke states:

At some unspecified time the dress was placed in a closed box and left in Chicago with its creator, Jamie Bullock.  Not until he received a letter from Laura written on 11 August 1873, did he know that he had the “Lincoln dress.”  He assured Laura, “My wife says that she will not lone your Dress because it would get Destroyed but will take good care of it until you send.”

The dress was willed to Emma by Laura (Henneke, p. 219) who died 4 November 1873, not much after her near fatal collapse at Tidioute, Pennsylvania, 4 July 1873 – and not much after the supposed letter of 11 August 1873 she wrote to Jaime Bullock.  Emma Taylor claimed to  take possession of the dress from Jaime Bullock.  Emma’s sister – Laura’s other daughter – Clara Taylor died in 1876.  About the time that Clara died, Emma Taylor married Albert Leighton Rawson, who has been described as a”confidence man“.  Emma [Taylor] Rawson and Albert had three children – Clara Rawson, who was born around 1877 and twin boys, Albert William Rawson and Alpheus Edward Rawson, born around 1878.  Then Emma [Taylor] Rawson died on 23 August 1882 – leaving the three young children with their “confidence man” father.

Henneke concludes the saga of the “bloody dress” with the statement:

Emma’s daughter, Clara Rawson, is supposed to have distributed panels of the dress to friends sometime around 1890. (p. 219).

It’s hard to believe that the so-called “bloody dress” ended up in the hands of a teenager.  But, that’s what happened according to Henneke.  As a source, he gives undated article from the Baltimore Sun which he says is probably 18 August 1896 (Henneke, p. 293).

Bryan gives a similar version of the disposition of the dress via Jaime Bullock and Chicago.  Not surprisingly, her source for the information is Henneke – except in the end note (Bryan, p. 210), which she simply restates the information from the undated Bullock letter and gives no source.

Back to Cincinnati in that week after the assassination….  There are sketchy reports of her performances in Cincinnati but Laura was too exhausted and too ill to perform through her contracts.  So, she cut out in May 1865 and went again for a period of rest.  Her biographers don’t state whether this occurred while in Cincinnati or at some other city where she was performing at the time.  The retreat and transport was arranged by John Lutz (Henneke, p. 219, Bryan, p. 142).  We don’t know if the Act III dress was shipped off to Chicago before or after she shortened the tour, so she could have taken it with her when she went into retreat in Acushnet, Massachusetts.

The Act III dress is not mentioned again, but Laura Keene as a public curiosity is mentioned in the press and by her biographers (Henneke, p. 218, Bryan, p. 142).  The end of the year 1865 was spent in legal battle with Edwin Booth and his brother-in-law John Sleeper Clarke over the rights to Our American Cousin.  Then, despite several attempts at revival, including the starting of a magazine, Fine Arts, and a stint in managing the Chestnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia, the latter two ventures with the almost complete effort of her daughter Emma Taylor, Laura’s career continued to decline as did her health.

And thus ends the story of the “chain of custody” of the “bloody dress.”  All those who have fragments, pieces, swatches and cuffs can trace their claims back to a teen age girl around 1890 whose father was a “confidence man” who supposedly gave away pieces of the dress to her friends.  The greater part of the dress has never been located.  And all those who still hang on the story that Laura Keene entered the State Box have to now factor in Laura’s poor health, the architecture of the theatre, conflicting claims by supposed eyewitnesses made many years after the fact, the almost total lack of contemporaneous evidence, a woman who worked for P. T. Barnum, Harry Hawk‘s cynicism about her route to the State Box, and finally Laura’s undisclosed illness which strangely and metaphorically leaves the vision of her last performance and her near death hemorrhage all over her costume – right there on the stage in a small Pennsylvania town.

The “bloody dress” story, if concocted by John Lutz, didn’t save Laura Keene.  It contributed to her destruction.  The theater profession went on despite Laura Keene and despite the tragedy of 14 April 1865.  It was left to others to save theater – including Edwin Booth, Laura’s one-time lover and the assassin’s brother, who had a remarkable resurgence and end-of-career respect despite what his brother had done.  But, that’s another Pennsylvania story.

——————–

The extensive 2 January 1897 interview with Louisa Eldridge appeared in the New York Dramatic Mirror and is available through FultonHistory.com.  The portrait of Louisa Eldridge is cropped from that feature news story.

The Harry Hawk articles are available through on-line services including Ancestry.com and the Free Library of Philadelphia.  (see Bangor Daily Whig and Courier (ME), 18 April 1893, and Atlanta Constitution (GA), 15 April 1894).

Genealogical information on Laura Keene and her daughters is available at Ancestry.com.

The biographies of Laura Keene by Creahan, Henneke and Bryan have been previously noted on this blog.

For more information on “confidence man” Albert L. Rawson, see Frauds Exposed or How the People are Deceived and Robbed and Youth Corrupted, by Anthony Comstock, in which Albert L. Rawson is exposed as a convicted bigamist and a thief.  For Albert L. Rawson, also see How the Arabian Nights Inspired the American Dream, by Susan Nance, in which she exposes the “elaborate mythos” Rawson concocted around the “Oriental motif”, as well as his open disdain of orthodox Christianity while seeming to embrace Islamic ideas and culture.

As previously noted on this blog, the “bloody cuff” which is part of the collection at the Smithsonian Museum of American History, was supposedly separated from the dress on the morning after the assassination and given to John Lutz. But as shown here, the cuff would have traveled to Harrisburg and then Cincinnati with Keene and her party (including Lutz).  According to Henneke, Laura and her daughters denied that there was any partitioning of the dress prior to its inheritance by daughter Emma Taylor (p. 219).

Future posts related to stage characters from the Ford’s Theatre production of Our American Cousin will focus on William J. Ferguson, Harry Hawk, John Dyott, Jeannie Gourlay, Thomas Gourlay and others with Pennsylvania connections.  In addition, the roles of the influential Washington individuals Adam Badeau and Francis Lutz will be explored.  Much of what has heretofore been written has failed to take in account the context in which they operated and reported on what transpired.  Comments and perspectives from readers are always welcome!

—————————–

Blog Posts to Date on the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln:

(Click on post title to read article)

Bill O’Reilly Book on Lincoln Assassination

The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln

Laura Keene Arrested at Harrisburg

Laura Keene and the Bloody Dress

The Architecture of Ford’s Theatre and Laura Keene

Laura Keene – Bibliography

The Journey of the Bloody Dress of Laura Keene

The Bloody Dress of Laura Keene Arrives in Baltimore

Baltimore to Harrisburg – The Bloody Dress of Laura Keene

Laura Keene and the Bloody Dress – To Cincinnati

Laura Keene and the Bloody Dress – In Cincinnati

Category: Research, Resources, Stories | 1 Comment »
Tags: Abraham Lincoln, Lincoln Assassination

Posted By Norman Gasbarro on March 16, 2012

When Laura Keene and her travel party of Harry Hawk, John Dyott, and Manager John Lutz left Harrisburg after their release from arrest following their removal from the Northern Central Railroad train from Baltimore, their objective was Cincinnati, Ohio, where Laura was booked to perform Our American Cousin on the Monday following the fatal Friday engagement at Ford’s Theatre.  Lutz surely wired ahead to the manager at Wood’s Theatre that Laura could not possibly make that performance and that the group was on its way to Cincinnati.  Cincinnati had already declared a period of mourning to last until Thursday, so the plan was to get there in time for that performance (scheduled as She Stoops to Conquer) and perhaps have some time to relax and wind down after the harried flight out of Washington that began some time within the 48 hours following the assassination.

At Harrisburg, the company trunks and Laura’s piano had to be loaded onto the Pennsylvania Railroad train to Pittsburgh.  Lutz made these arrangements after he purchased the tickets.  The dress that Laura wore in Act III of Our American Cousin was in one of Laura’s trunks.  She was carrying the dress because she planned to wear it in one of the performances at Wood’s Theatre in Cincinnati.  There was no indication from how Laura was acting on the journey to Cincinnati the dress was damaged beyond use – or for that matter, damaged at all.

Wood's Theatre, Cincinnati, Ohio

Getting to Cincinnati involved crossing the Allegheny Mountains and winding around the Altoona Horseshoe Curve which had been completed in 1854 as a means of decreasing the grade to the summit.  The route taken to Pittsburgh was most likely as shown on the map below (blue line):

Click on map to enlarge.

Laura was not well and the journey over the mountains of about ten hours or more surely took much out of her.  Her declining health was constantly noted by her biographer, Ben Graf Henneke, but somehow she continued to pick herself up and move on.  She did need frequent periods of rest and recovery and this is also reported by Henneke.  Without John Lutz to protect her, she surely would never have been able to leave Washington after the assassination.  What appeared to be driving her now was her anger at what John Wilkes Booth had done to the image of theater people and what John Lutz thought should be done to help re-build the image.  Part of the plan hinged on the the public’s acceptance of the story that she had cradled Lincoln’s head in her lap.  The image of Laura doing all she could to assist after the fatal shot – the tableau created by that scene – would haunt her to her dying day.  She never spoke of it, but others did.  And, the likelihood that it actually happened is very remote.

For the long train journey to Pittsburgh, a sleeper coach may have been available.  Henneke describes the primitive accommodations:

Sleeping accommodations were made up by a brakeman.  He turned over every alternate seat-back. dividing the car into a series of compartments or near-compartments.  Then in each section he fitted from seat to seat a base of boards thinly upholstered, and arranged thereupon the sheets, blankets, and pillows.  A slightly longer platform, similarly padded, rested on the backs of the car seats and formed the upper berth.  He hung around three sides of the sections flimsy and dingy curtain of some cotton stuff; and lowers and uppers were ready.  (page 184).

At Pittsburgh, the choices were overland by rail or down the Ohio River to Cincinnati.  Henneke believed that Laura preferred the river routes and under normal circumstances, Lutz may have obliged.  But this travel was not normal.  The other option was to go by rail to Columbus and from there get whatever connections were available to Cincinnati.  The maps below show the rail possibility.

Click on map to enlarge.

Click on map to enlarge.

If the Ohio River route had been chosen, it would have been more logical to travel west from Baltimore via the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, arriving at the Ohio River at Parkersburg, West Virginia.  This would have avoided at least three difficult transfers and most likely, the group would not have have been arrested as they were at Harrisburg.  Whether the choice to go to Harrisburg was made because Harrisburg offered more options (escape to Canada included), or because specific trains were not running at times to make needed connections, is not known at this time.

We don’t know exactly when Laura Keene and her entourage and luggage arrived in Cincinnati but we do know that they performed on Thursday evening less than a week after the assassination.  Much of the route from Harrisburg to Cincinnati is a matter of speculation with possibilities of travel given above, absent the schedule and times.

Laura’s specific health maladies are also a matter of speculation.  Henneke waits until nearly the end of his biography of Keene to divulge a specific symptom that dramatically revealed itself while she was performing at a small town in Pennsylvania.  But since Laura Keene kept her health matters a closely guarded secret, we probably never will know for sure what ailed her and what ultimately caused her death.  Suffice it to say, that on the night of the Lincoln assassination her health was in rapid decline and she was unable to do half of shat she could do just a few years before.  Following the assassination, things got worse for Laura’s career and for her health.  Moreover, she had to rely upon others for nearly everything.  Fortunately for Laura’s posterity, those who did for her made it seem that she was doing for herself, and for that loyalty, they were rewarded.

In the post tomorrow, some specific stories will be  told of the “bloody dress” in Cincinnati.

The portrait of Laura Keene shown at the top of this post is from very early in her career- as she wanted to be remembered – and not as an aging actress with health problems. A copy of this picture is available in the free download of the first biography of Keene, by John Creahan.

Category: Research, Resources, Stories | Comments Off on Laura Keene and the Bloody Dress – To Cincinnati
Tags: Abraham Lincoln, Lincoln Assassination, Railroad

Posted By Norman Gasbarro on March 15, 2012

Part 3.  The Dauphin County Memorial to the Civil War is currently located in a park at 3rd Street and Division Streets near William Penn High School and near Italian Lake.  It is now in the Uptown section of Harrisburg, north of what was once the entrance area to Camp Curtin.  The monument stands about 110 feet high and is a single obelisk which resembles a smaller version of the monument to George Washington in Washington, D.C.  The stone of the monument is native to the area and was cut from the banks of the Susquehanna River.

The monument was originally located at the intersection of North 2nd Street and State Streets but in 1960, after years of deterioration, it was cleaned and restored and moved to the park where it presently resides.

While the monument inscription indicates that it was originally erected in 1869, the fact is that it was not completed until 1876 and before its completion, the “pile of stone” was an eyesore and embarrassment in downtown Harrisburg.  The long, difficult struggle to get funding for the monument and complete it in a reasonable amount of time after the war will be discussed in a series of five posts that began two days ago. The story is told as reported in the Harrisburg Patriot, 25 December 1903.

THE INTERESTING STORY OF THE STATE STREET MONUMENT

How the Great Shaft Was Raised as a Memorial to Dauphin County’s Soldiers and Sailors in the Civil War

Work That Told

What it time it was!  All through that excessively hot summer Miss Cameron and her indefatigable helpers planned and worked with unflagging interest.  That work was done with system; innumerable meetings were held; not a spot in the county but was aroused; and in Harrisburg there was a house-to-house visitation to gather in contributions.

By September, all was in readiness.  On the twentieth, just to arouse enthusiasm, the Harmonic Society gave a concert in Brandt’s Hall, for the benefit of the Fair, which though it was not well attended on account of the inclement weather, cleared $71.50.  Of that concert a critic has written:  “As regards the programme we would suggest that in future pieces for brass band had better be played in the open air.  ‘Glory be to God on High’ was well rendered, and the violin solos by Prof. Weber and Mr. Burke were both encored, after which Mr. Burke gave a beautiful rendering of John Anderson My Joe with great effect.  The song of the Lively Drum, ‘Fausts March,’ ‘Now the Camp fire Burns’ we think were taken in too slow time by Prof. Priem, and there is room for improvement in that direction.  The solo by Miss Barnitz and the duet by the same and Miss Roberts were exquisitely rendered and the accompaniments by William Knoche were played in excellent taste.  We are sorry we cannot say as much for ‘The Star Spangled Banner.'”

Never in its history doubtless did the old white pillared, red brick Capitol see such days of excitement as from Monday, 24 September, to Wednesday noon, 3 October 1866, when the interior was turned into a mammoth bazaar, and the women of Dauphin County reigned supreme.

Brilliant indeed was its interior hung, under the direction of Gen. Williams, with hundreds of yards of bunting supplied by a Philadelphia firm, and with flags of every nation on earth, furnished by John W. Forney.  These decorations according to an eye witness, commanded the enthusiastic rapture of the sensitively exquisite admiration of the ladies.

The rotunda was dedicated to Flora, and here under an immense green booth Mrs. P. S. Simmons had mustered all the prettiest girls of the day in voluminous hoop-skirted white gowns and buff ribbons, to charm the unwary into the purchase of her “posies.”  Of them a gallant reporter writes:

“In the Rotunda we observed the most magnificent banquet upon which our eyes were ever allowed to feast.  It was a bunch of nature’s flowers, plucked from the bowers of celestial glory, to make man love and make him happy, a bouquet nearly all of native growth.”

The House of Representatives was crowded with the different ward and township tables.  Middletown, Millersburg and Halifax had tables of their own.  Hummelstown and Derry, though collecting for a monument for their cemetery, had a table under the direction of Mrs. Richard Fox; while Washington, Wiconisco, Lykens, Gratz, Mifflin and Uniontown combined to display their wares.

In the Senate were musical instruments from the stores of Professors Knoche, Ward and Orth; agricultural implements, hardware from Kelker and Brothers, a table of beautiful wreaths; and separate stalls run by some of the younger girls.

The basement and committee rooms were given over to refreshments under the charge of Mrs. William Duncan, Mrs. Anthony King, Mrs. Buehler, Mrs. Kepner, Mrs. Whitman and Mrs. Henry Felix; and here were served among other things, “chickens and waffles to tickle the palate of an epicure,” and “palatable luncheons and superb suppers.”

For three days of terrible rain the managers worked untiringly getting the capital in readiness of the great fair.  There was an informal opening on Saturday to give the farmers who had come to market the chance to see it, but not until Monday afternoon, at two o’clock, was the Soldiers’ Monument fair formally opened with a fervent prayer by the Rev. Thomas H. Robinson, of the New School Presbyterian Church, followed by an eloquent address by Gov. Andrew Curtin.

There were distinguished guests present on this occasion, among them Gen. Geary, the Republican candidate for Governor, with his wife, who remained the rest of the week to help; and Gen. and Mrs. Benjamin F. Butler and daughter, who were the guests of Gen. Cameron.  Gen. Butler paid $10.00 instead of ten cents fr the privilege of signing his name in the autographic album, while Gen. Cameron walked around the room putting $5.00 bills on each table.

Interest in the Fair

How widespread was the interest in the fair the lists of contributors and their contributions show.  Prominent men and women from all over the country gave liberally, and the names of Thomas A. Scott, J. Dawson Coleman, Gen. Geary, Hiester Clymer, Mrs. Stephen A. Douglas, Gen. Meade, Gen. Grant, and Gen. W. S. Mitchell, of Gen. Hancock’s staff, are down for generous donations of from ten to fifty dollars.  Norristown, Philadelphia, Bethlehem, sent gifts; the recently orphaned children from the White Hall Soldiers’ Orphan School gave $100; while old and established Philadelphia firms, like James S. Orne, James E. Caldwell and Brother, Mishey, Turner and Company, contributed velvet carpets and Turkish rugs, jewelry to the amount of $100, and gas fixtures and chandeliers by the dozen.

Harrisburg and the rest of Dauphin County vied with one another in the generosity of their gifts.  The merchants in addition to large donations in goods and money set their merchandise at cost and allowed the ladies of the fair to make their own selection.  Many of the firms which helped by their generosity to erect the Soldiers’ Monument are now but names out of the dim past.  D. Eppley and Company, C. L. Bowman, Hummel and Sayford, Josephus Shissler, Augenbaugh and Bentz, Shoemaker and Reily, Jester and Company, Bigler and Son, Mme. Jennings, Mathers Millinery, Mrs. Jones, Singerly and Meyers, Garrett and Mayer, George Cunkle and Company, Zollinger and Brother, Kelker Brothers, Raumfort Brothers, what old Harrisburger will fail to recall , those wide awake, enterprising business men and women, on whom for years every one depended for their daily needs.  There were others, whose names are still household words, D. W. Gross and Company, M. G. Einstein, John W. Glover, P. W. Boyd, each and all of whom had their share in that granite shaft which it is proposed to move.

The farmers took a tremendous interest in the projects, and we read of barrel after barrel of potatoes, apples, turnips, vegetables of every description, chickens, ducks, cream, butter and eggs (at 50 cents a pound and 45 cents a dozen be it said), being sent to the capitol.  Paxton Valley, then as now, was famous for its preserves, and from the jellies, jams and crocks of apple butter given to the Fair, every women in it must have spent her summer sizzling over a preserving kettle.

What was done with the enormous amount of goods contributed, it is difficult to conjecture.  Among them were a Mexican saddle given by Gen. Canales to Dr. Egle and costing $50 in gold in Mexico, a live steer from Alex Koser fattened for the Fair to 1,500 pounds; a deed for a hundred acres of land in Blair County from C. A. Snyder and Company; a life membership in business college from Bryant, Stratton and Fanciscus; a deed for a $300 lot in Haley, now Marysville from Theodore Fenn and wife; a year’s accident policy for $2,000 from S. S. Child; a four-year scholarship in Dickinson College for Dr. Jeremiah Seiler; tons of coal, boats, 2,000 shingles, hundreds of feet of lumber, sewing machines, cases of wine, and one of Rohrer’s Expectoral Wild Cherry Tonic, sets of cottage furniture, a magnificent alabaster marble tazza, from Dr. C. K. Keller; cider presses, feed cutters, stoves, castors, crayons, pantaloons, a $50 bridal dress, bonnets, valued at $30 and $35 each, and a number of fancy birds, and “a handsome carriage for some darling baby.”

As for the ladies, no wonder the reporters were driven adjective mad to describe their donations.  Every chair in the county must have been plastered three deep with worsted tidies, one of which was from “Master Eddie Kepner, worked by himself.”  There were magnificent pin cushions by the hundreds, wax flowers, embroidered slippers, cornucopias, shawls, moss crosses, “a beautiful sontag,” shell baskets, moreno and poplin dresses, balmorals, coseys, worsted afghans, all reminiscent of another generation.

That was a gay ten days in the capital of Pennsylvania.  In addition what one could buy, there were concerts by the Harmonic society; concerts by Weber’s Band and in the rotunda, special presentations, ceremonies and a final “social hop to get rid of the remaining eatables,” all to be had for a $1.00 season ticket, or 25 cents admission, ten cents on Saturdays.

Thursday night was a gala occasion, for then the Hope Fire Company No. 2, headed by the Fairview Band, marched from their hall to the capitol, bearing their contribution to the Fair – an enormous cake made by Henry Felix.  Who that saw it can forget that wonderful white iced cake?  Six feet high, and weighing one hundred pounds, it was in the for of an octagonal monument.  At the wreath-encircled base there were four figures in full fireman’s uniform, while above were mouldings of famous warriors, fire plugs, sections of hose.  Still higher on the seven sides were the names of the seven members of the company whose lives had been sacrificed in their country’s service”  Brooks, Hummel, Miller, Root, Simpson, Waterbury and Wireman, on the the eighth the inscription, “Presented by Hope Fire Company No. 2.  We Honor Our Fallen Comrades.”  Pictures of the Father of His Country were above this, and the whole was surmounted by a bee hive, the emblem of the company.

This cake was presented to Miss Jennie Cameron in an eloquent speech by Col. Alleman, congratulating her on her untiring efforts to make the fair a success, and saying that as the members of the Hope Company were the first men in the commonwealth to respond to Governor Curtin’s call for troops, and had been so fully represented during the whole war that for months at a time its doors were closed. , it was their pleasure to substantially aid this work for the Soldiers’ Monument.

Col. J. Wesley Awl replied for Miss Cameron, after mentioning the regular meetings of the company held in the field in the winter of 1863, and telling of the gallant Wireman, wounded in the thigh, carrying the Stars and Stripes through the streets of Baltimore;  Col. Awl said: “When this monument is raised, you will be proud through all generations to think that not only by individual contribution, but as an organized company you aided in honoring the noble dead who went forth from our midst to battle for our glorious country.”

If Pennsylvania had any laws against chancing and lotteries in those days, the ladies saw fit to overrule them, in the very seat of the government.  Voting contests and chances kept excitement at fever heat; and if rumor has it right tempers also ran high. Many an interesting tale has come down to us of the “scrapping” at that fair.  Those were bitter times; men’s feelings had been too recently stirred to their depths to resume so soon their normal calm; and so we hear the Republicans decrying the interest of Democrats in the Fair as lukewarm and hinting at copperhead sentiments and the democrats retaliating by calling the whole Fair a republican partisan movement.  This undercurrent was constantly kept stirred by the intense interest in the various voting contests, some of which almost threatened a renewal of hostilities.

A Memorable Contest

Gen. Geary and Hiester Clymaer were running for Governor that autumn.  The enterprising managers of the fair secured a “magnificently superb gentleman’s dressing gown” from Eppley and Company, to be awarded to which ever of these gentlemen received the highest number of votes, at 50 cents apiece.  Two committees were appointed by the ladies to collect money for the purchase of votes; the Hon. David Fleming, Dr. George Bailey, George Bergner, and Alexander Koser for the Republicans; and the Hon. William H. Miller, D. D. Boas, Charles Roumfort and J. Monroe Kreiter for the Democrats.  Miss Maggie Cameron and Mrs. George Bailey were in charge of the Republican ballot box, but who ran the Democratic polls has not come down to us, though the Telegraph of that day accused the ladies in charge with running off with the box to stuff it, while the Patriot and Union of 25 September solemnly warns all democrats “not to participate in voting for the wrapper, as some of the committee have said it will be given to Gen. Geary at all hazards.”  The Democrats evidently believed their chief organ, or lacked interest or money, for the wrapper went to Gen. Geary without much effort.

Then there was a terribly exciting struggle for the “Button Reel Hose Carriage” between the “Hope” and “Washington Hose” Fire Companies.  This contest was managed by Mrs. Professor Priem, and the friends of the “fire ladies” worked like Trojans for their favorites.  The carriage, which was built by the Button Manufacturing Company at a cost of $700 was won by the “Hopeies,” by 648 votes.  This carriage was presented with imposing ceremonies 18 April 1867, on its arrival from Philadelphia, and was christened “the Jennie Cameron Hose Carriage.”  There was a street parade and banquet at which Col. A. J. Herr made the presentation speech for the Fair managers, and Joshua M. Wiestling responded for the company.

Another contest was for baseballs and bats between the Keystones and Tyroleans.  The latter popular team lost through “over-confidence”: though one of their “lady friends” was heard to remark:  “If the Keystones did beat the Tyroleans on a vote, the Tyroleans could beat them to death on a play.”

Caldwell and Company had presented a sealed package to be voted for married women.  Six hundred votes were polled among a dozen candidates, but the principal contest was between Mrs. Harry Thomas and Mrs. George Bailey, Mrs. Thomas being the lucky winner.  The box when opened disclosed to the admiring and curious gaze of hundreds of women who had crowded around, a “magnificent set of jewelry – a brooch and earrings, composed of brilliants with a large crescent beneath, finished in gold draping fringe.

Miss Jennie Cameron was presented by a unanimous vote in testimony of her services for the fair, with a Parian marble bust of Lincoln, whose great friend she was.  Mrs. Mary S. Beatty drew a “suberb” pin-cushion made and presented to the Fair by Mrs. Curtin, and Dr. S. S. Mitchell, of the First Presbyterian Church, was voted a dressing gown by his admirers.

Everything from a cottage set to a wax doll was chanced off, and there were fortune-telling trees, tempting of fate by eggs, and all kinds of appeals to the future.

The women of Dauphin County had reason to be proud of their success.  That ten days’ Fair netted them $8,237.01 clear gain, the receipts being $9, 212.31 and the expenses $835.30.  The first day, $1,441,04 was taken in and the interest kept up to the end.  There was much rivalry between the tables, the Second War table took in $1,813.23 and the Third ward $1,940.50.  The attendance was of course enormous, on day 2,000 being present. The results were a distinct triumph, as with all their months of hard work, the Men’s Executive Committee had only collected $633.98 with $1,320 in promises.

The managers were not content, however, nor utterly worn out with their efforts as would seem only natural, for on Tuesday, 16 December, they gave a Gift Concert in the Court House.  Tickets were sold at $1.00 apiece, each ticket-holder to receive a prize ranging in value form twenty-five cents to two hundred dollars.

After all these efforts the monument was doubtless considered as practically raised.  On 26 December 1866, at a large and enthusiastic meeting in the State Capitol Hotel, the old Executive Committee of men was finally discharged on motions of Gen. Jordan as having fulfilled its mission, and on 30 January 1867, the Dauphin County Soldiers’ Monument Association was incorporated.

The story of the monument will continue on Friday, 23 March 2012.

Category: Memorials, Research, Resources, Stories | 1 Comment »
Tags: Andrew Curtin, Gratz Borough, Halifax, Lykens Borough, Mifflin Township, Millersburg, Monument, Wiconisco, Women

Posted By Norman Gasbarro on March 14, 2012

Part 2.  The Dauphin County Memorial to the Civil War is currently located in a park at 3rd Street and Division Streets near William Penn High School and near Italian Lake.  It is now in the Uptown section of Harrisburg, north of what was once the entrance area to Camp Curtin.  The monument stands about 110 feet high and is a single obelisk which resembles a smaller version of the monument to George Washington in Washington, D.C.  The stone of the monument is native to the area and was cut from the banks of the Susquehanna River.

The monument was originally located at the intersection of North 2nd Street and State Streets but in 1960, after years of deterioration, it was cleaned and restored and moved to the park where it presently resides.

While the monument inscription indicates that it was originally erected in 1869, the fact is that it was not completed until 1876 and before its completion, the “pile of stone” was an eyesore and embarrassment in downtown Harrisburg.  The long, difficult struggle to get funding for the monument and complete it in a reasonable amount of time after the war will be discussed in a series of five posts that began yesterday. The story will be told as reported in the Harrisburg Patriot, 25 December 1903.

THE INTERESTING STORY OF THE STATE STREET MONUMENT

How the Great Shaft Was Raised as a Memorial to Dauphin County’s Soldiers and Sailors in the Civil War

The Corner Stone

At an Executive Committee meeting on 18 January, it was resolved to lay the corner-stone on 4 July 1866; the character of the monument to be governed according to the liberality of the people of the county.  Gen. Jordan and Doctors Dock and Egle were made a Finance committee, and Messrs. Detweiler, Williams and Novinger were appointed to select collectors for every ward, township and borough in the county.  Alas, the mice-like propensity of plans to “gang-agley” was not taken into account, and notwithstanding almost herculean efforts on the part of this committee, it was many a long month after that next Independence Day that the corner stone was laid.

Interest was at once aroused; strong appeals were made to the public in letters in the daily papers, and the clergy, the press, superintendents of Sunday Schools, teachers in public and private schools, the firemen and other associations, men of every profession, and all mechanics and laborers were enlisted in the movement.  Operators in the different large factories, furnaces, and work-shops formed sub-associations to raise funds, and the first subscription made to the monument was one of $125.75, sent in 27 February 1866, through W. T. Hildrup from the employees of the “Car Factory.”  S. D. Ingram, superintendent of the public schools perfected a plan to place subscription books in every school in the county, these books being placed later in the corner stone.

Despite all the efforts the progress was not very encouraging, and in July an appeal was made to the ladies for help.  It was not made in vain, and to the untiring zeal of the women of Dauphin County is largely due the Soldiers’ Monument.

A fair was decided upon; and fortunately the list of devoted women who made it a success has been preserved, with its quaint, olf-time love of a title.

President – Miss Jennie Cameron, now Mrs. Wayne McVeagh.

Directors – Mrs. Gov. Andrew G. Curtin, Mrs. Gen. Simon Cameron, Mrs. Judge Pearson, Mrs. Gen. W. H. Miller, Mrs. Sarah Haly, Mrs. Col. S. G. Simmons, Mrs. Dr. S. T. Charlton, Mrs. Judge Burnside, Mrs. D. D. Boas, Mrs. Dr. C. Seller, Mrs. R. A. Lamberton, Mrs. Henry Gilbert, Mrs. Charles L. Bailey.

Treasurer – Mrs. James W. Weir.

Secretaries – Mrs. Mary S. Beatty, Mrs. Dr. George Bailey.

Committee [members from Upper Dauphin County area included; for others see original article]

Jefferson Township – Mrs. Archibald McLaughlin, Mrs. John Hoffman, Mrs. Jonathan Enterline, Mrs. Philip Hoffman, Mrs. George H. Bressler.

Jackson Township – Mrs. Lt. C. Bixler, Mrs. Lt. Charles E. Riegel, Mrs. John Zimmerman, Mrs. Isaac Hoffman.

Reed Township – Mrs. Maj. T. S. Freeland, Mrs. Martha Heickle, Mrs. Jacob Tyson.

Washington Township – Mrs. D. K. McClure, Mrs. Eli Swab, Mrs. Dr. Straub, Mrs. George Gilbert, Mrs. Benjamin R. Buffington.

Lykens – Mrs. Amos Hoffman, Mrs. H. B. Schreiner, Mrs. Simon Daniel.

Halifax  – Miss Mary Freeland, Miss Lizzie Landis, Miss Waldron, Miss Lyter, Mrs. Thomas Carpenter, Mrs. Ferguson.

Millersburg – Mrs. G. M. Brubaker, Miss Mary Bowman, Mrs. R. A. Wiggins, Mrs. H. B. Hoffman, Miss Auchmoody, Mrs. Henry Gilbert, Mrs. Maj. S. P. Auchmoody, Miss Mary Miller, Mrs. John R. Bowman.

Wiconisco – Mrs. Judge Young, Mrs. Col. E. G. Savage, Miss Amanda Schaffer, Miss Beckie Foster, Mrs. Jacob Hassler, Mrs. Simon B. Cales, Mrs. Gifford Dock, Mrs. Col. Hyde, Mrs. William Willones, Mrs. John L. Foster, Miss Leah Ferree, Mrs. Josiah Bowman, Mrs. A. F. Englebert.

Gratz – Mrs. Dr. J. Schminkey, Mrs. Daniel Lehr, Mrs. William Hoffman.

The story of the monument will continue in the post tomorrow.

Category: Memorials, Research, Resources, Stories | Comments Off on History of the Dauphin County Civil War Monument – Part 2
Tags: Gratz Borough, Halifax, Jackson Township, Jefferson Township, Lykens Borough, Lykens Township, Monument, Reed Township, Washington Township, Wiconisco, Women