August

August 28: Lucy Webb is Born

Lucy Webb would become a woman of many firsts throughout her life. She would become the first wife of a president to be called the “First Lady.” She would be the first wife of a president to have graduated from college. She would be responsible for bringing the first telephone to the White House, the first typewriter to the White House and her and her husband would initiate the children’s “Easter Egg Roll” in the front yard of the White House.

While being First Lady, Lucy Webb Hayes, wife of Rutherford B. Hayes, the 19th U.S. President, endured the endless social schedule involved with that title, but what she loved to do was entertain her wide circle of friends in the White House. That circle of friends included several women that would someday have those same responsibilities. Ida McKinley, wife of congressman William McKinley was a frequent guest even substituting for Lucy at some White House functions when Lucy had other commitments. Lucy invited to one of her private socials, Rutherford’s former law partner’s sixteen year old daughter, Helen Herron who found the get together the “climax of human bliss” and vowed that she would someday return to the house as First Lady (she did as Howard Taft’s wife 30 some years later).

Lucy’s strong religious beliefs had always guided her life and just because she was a temporary resident of the White House, it was no reason to amend those beliefs. She and when he was in town, Rutherford, regularly attended services at the Foundry Methodist Church less than a mile from the White House. Not only did she attend regular Sunday morning services, but also actively involved herself in church activities walking to and from the church. Lucy grew up in a Methodist household and graduated from a Methodist college, and she had long embraced the churches stance on Temperance. Feeling no compulsion to change her belief system when her husband narrowly won a hard fought election, Lucy banned all alcohol from the White House. Years after Rutherford left office, his wife would sometimes be referred to as Lemonade Lucy– but never to her face.

Certain previous First Ladies had been sharply criticized for reasons that today would seem unfathomable: her hair is too frizzy, her wardrobe is outrageously scandalous, exposed neckline, bare arms, powdered face. Lucy seemed to have a personality or air about her that did not immediately draw poison from the press’ pens. Quite the opposite.

Lucy was the modest woman from Ohio who wore no jewelry, and more often than not wore only black, that matched her black hair that was always parted in the middle and pulled back in a tight bun. Only on special occasions would she adorn her hair with a hair beret as an accent. She was finely accustomed to the elevated requirements of a politicians wife. Her husband had been elected governor twice, and he had served in the US House of Representative. Those requirements were mere nothings compared to what she endured being close to the blood of battle and smell of death as she attended soldiers fighting under her husbands leadership during the War of the Rebellion.

Lucy seemed not to use her position in life as the First Lady to adopt causes even when she believed in those causes. Her position was the result of a marriage and nothing other than support her husband had she done to garner power that could be wielded across the country. That support of her husband could not be so easily dismissed as powerless. Lucy had great influence with her husband if she chose to use it. It had always been that way between them, even after they first met.

Lucy had first met Rutherford Birchard Hayes, who was born in Delaware Ohio, while she attended classes there along with her older brothers. She was just 14 years old the first time she met Rutherford who was 23. By that time Rutherford had already attended a private school in Connecticut that would later become a part of the Wesleyan University. In 1842 he received his degree from Kenyon College and then went to Harvard College to become a lawyer and graduated in 1845. It was probably after his graduation when he returned briefly to Delaware to see his family that he encountered the young Lucy. While in Delaware, Lucy’s mother became friends with Hayes’ mother and the two women most certainly discussed ways of getting their two children together.

Although Rutherford would begin practicing law in Lower Sandusky (now known as Fremont) it was a small town with really not enough legal work to suit his drive. In 1847 he had some health issues and decided to take a trip to Texas where he spent some time before returning to Ohio and in 1848 he relocated to Cincinnati to open a new law practice there. Here he became involved with the Abolitionist movement and became reacquainted with the much older Lucy, now 18 and a college graduate of Wesleyan Woman’s College in Cincinnati.

Rutherford began mentioning her in his diary: “Her low sweet voice is very winning … a heart as true as steel…. Intellect she has too…. By George! I am in love with her!”

In less than two years of her graduating from college, Lucy and Rutherford B. Hayes were married and together they would fight many political battles and wars, but they would never lose sight of their profound love for each other. They would spend their remaining days at their home in Fremont. On June 25, 1889 while Rutherford was attending a meeting in Columbus, Lucy had a stroke and died in the early morning hours. Three and half years later, Rutherford died of a heart attack at his home in Fremont.

Both Lucy and Rutherford are buried on their estate called Spiegel Grove in Fremont Ohio.

On this day in in 1831, Lucy Webb was born the third child of Dr. James and Maria Cook Webb in a two story framed house at 90 West Sixth Street in Chillicothe, Ohio.

August 13: Today is Phoebe Ann Moses’ Birthday

By John Merrill

On this day one of Americas most celebrated marksmen was born in Darke County to Jacob and Susan Moses. They named here Phoebe Ann Moses. Her mother always called her Phoebe, but her four sisters and two brothers called her Annie.

Annie’s father died when she was six leaving his wife and seven children in dire straits. To help feed the family, Phoebe Ann, who her father had already taught how to use his rifle, began hunting wild game. She became quite proficient at hunting and began selling the game first to a local restaurant in Greenville. It became widely known for provided exceptionally clean game, meaning that she only brought down the game with only 1 shot.

In November of 1875 while visiting her older sister Lydia in Cincinnati and who convinced Phoebe that she ought to take up a challenge being offered to any local marksmen to enter a shooting contest for local marksmen, the winner would take home $100. Phoebe decided to give it a try.

A number of local marksmen also entered the contest including an Irishman named Frank Butler who was a side-show marksman with a traveling variety show. Butler figured it would be the easiest $100 he ever made. He was next to the last contestant and had he figured the contest was all but over with the only other contestant was a small teenage girl. When Butler asked someone who she was, they said, “That’s Annie Mozee from Darke County. She hunts squirrels.” Butler had hit 24 out of 25 targets, better than anyone else. He didn’t figure the little squirrel hunter could beat that, but he was wrong.

Years later Butler would said “I was taken off guard.” Even after losing the $100 in prize money, he offered little Phoebe Moses, her mother and 4 sisters free tickets to see his show. That was the beginning of a year long courtship that resulted in Frank Butler and Phoebe Annie Moses being wed on August 23, 1876. Six years later Phoebe took the stage when Frank’s partner John Graham took ill. It was the beginning of her stage career and world-wide fame.

It’s not known for certain where Phoebe Ann Moses Butler acquired the name Annie Oakley. The most common source is that in the 1870s she lived for a while in a Cincinnati suburb named Oakley. This is total speculation. There is also some difference of opinion on her maiden name Moses. She insisted the family name was Mosey, at other times she said it was Mozee and at one time on the census it was listed as Mauzy. Her brother John insisted the name was Moses, and since he was the last one to pass, it was his choice to have the family headstone inscribed with Moses.

They remained married until Annie’s death on November 3, 1926. Frank died 18 days later and both are buried in Brock Cemetery just north of Greenville. It is said that Annie was cremated and the urn holding her ashes were placed in Frank’s casket and they both were buried together, on November 25, Thanksgiving Day, the same day they first met in 1875.

More information about Annie Oakley and Greenville Ohio

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August 5: The first electric traffic control lights installed in Cleveland

By John Merrill

On this day in 1914 the American Traffic Signal Company installed the first electrically control traffic signal system on the corner of East 105th Street and Euclid Avenue in Cleveland Ohio. This was the beginning of a series of inventions used to help motorists, pedestrians, bicyclists and carriages to safely navigate through an intersection. Prior to this a police officer would stand in the middle of a busy intersection and hold up either a stop or go sign.

James B. Hoge’s design still included a traffic policeman, but instead of standing in the middle of the intersection he had a little enclosure similar to what people of a certain age remember as a phone booth. From this little booth, the police officer could detect backups and alter the traffic flow. He also had a connection with the local fire departments and could activate a steam whistle to alert pedestrians and vehicles that an emergency vehicle could be coming through the intersection at any moment.

Hoge’s traffic signal didn’t have the red / green lights we know, but instead lighted signs that said either MOVE or STOP. The entire system was extremely complicated and did not catch on. Variations of traffic controls were beginning to be seen across the country. In 1922 another Cleveland resident, Garrett Morgan Sr. applied for a patent that was a manually controlled signal that had lighted semaphores as well as a colored light in the center that was red for stop and green for go. Morgan’s idea was not widely implemented, but, Garrett actually sold his patent to a new start-up company named General Electric for the price of $40,000– not bad when the average income in 1922 was just over $3,000 per year. General Electric would go on to mass produce traffic lights for the entire country that would incorporate Mr. Morgan’s color lights housed in a 4-sided box.

Speaking of traffic lights, inside Ohio’s Small Town Museum in Ashville, the oldest continuously operating traffic light that has been in operation since 1932, but it was retired from service in 1982 when, due to its configuration of only one light that changed colors, color blind folks couldn’t distinguish between the red and green light changes.

Ashville's Continuously Operating Traffic Signal — Ashville’s Continuously Operating Traffic Signal

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Aug. 4: George Armstrong Custer and 7th Cavalry Attacked by Sioux

By John Merrill

Custer Memorial statue in New Rumley, Ohio, site of Custer's birthplace. — Custer Memorial statue in New Rumley, Ohio, site of Custer’s birthplace.

August 4, 1873: A man born in the Appalachian foothills of eastern Ohio, a man who had received praise from the President of the United States as a Civil War cavalry officer, was now relegated to guard duty for a survey party laying out the route for a 3rd transcontinental railroad. This route however, would take it through hostile Sioux lands. Custer was anxious for a fight and looking for one. It had been 2 years since he and his men had been in a fire-fight, yet for most of this assignment it had been uneventful.

For a time Custer and his scouts had seen Sioux in the distance but never close enough to engage. Years later, Sioux survivors would related how they had been testing the cavalry to see if they would engage. And, according to their accounts, they always failed the test. But on this day in 1873 and a scouting party from a large group of Sioux being led by Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull, had attacked a scouting party from the 7th Cavalry.

When alerted of the attack, Custer threw everything he could into the skirmish and the Sioux quickly retreated. During the skirmish, one cavalrymen and one Sioux warrior were killed. The consequences of this brief engagement would play heavily a few years later when these same combatants would meet each other along a river in South Dakota known as the Little Big Horn.

For Custer, the engagement reinforced his idea that the Plains Indians were poor fighters, and likely to run when faced with a superior foe. For the Sioux leaders Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, they confirmed that the American cavalry leader was impetuous that would engage at the slightest provocation. These initial assessments would both be confirmed three years later.

AUG. 31, McKinley: Leon Czolgosz Arrives in Buffalo

By John Merrill

The year was 1901 and Leon Czologosz had just arrived by steamer at the Buffalo dock. It was August 31 and on the weeks leading up to this day Leon had had an epiphany. On the steamer, he had worked out some of the details, but he mostly spent his time reading the Anarchist pamphlets he picked up during his brief stay in Chicago. While in Chicago, Leon also read about the president’s plans to visit the Exposition in Buffalo next month.

Leon was a little slippery with facts, perhaps because he couldn’t remember facts or perhaps just because he was a natural liar. At one time he was born in Michigan, another time in Cleveland. His father, a Polish immigrant, lived in Warrensville where he had recently acquired a 55 acre farm.

The last few years had been especially difficult for Leon. The last two decades had been difficult. The new farm gave Leon the space not to be crowded by the capitalists he constantly ran into in the city. He found himself immersed in his inner musings and sat quietly on the farm while his father tried to get the land to give up its reward. His father didn’t mind that Leon did not help. He knew Leon was an intelligent man and needed his time to think, he had always been that way.

It was Saturday when Leon disembarked. He already knew where he was going, he had been here just a few weeks back and was quite familiar with Buffalo and where the Exposition was located. Leon would later say that he hadn’t made up his mind when arrived in Buffalo, but again, Leon was a natural liar. He knew he was going to shoot the President of the United States in less than a week.

August 29: Boss Kettering is Born

By John Merrill

As you probably know, this is the 10 year anniversary of when Hurricane Katrina first made landfall near New Orleans. It was a Cat 4 storm and caused more than 1300 deaths and almost $200 billion in damage. One hundred and forty years before that story, another event occurred in a little town in northeast Ohio. It was the birth of a little boy that would make a huge impact on the American people and the world. That would be in the years to come. On this day, Martha Kettering was happy he was a healthy boy. His father, Jacob was glad his wife had survived the ordeal of childbirth.

Anyone that has a driver’s license has probably used a key to start their car. For those that don’t know what happens when they turn that key, in its most basic concept, allows a jolt of electricity to run from the battery to a motor that actually turns or cranks the engine. Sparks are then ignited in the piston chambers that cause a mixture of air and vaporized gasoline to explode. Once all of the cylinders start revolving, the starter motor quickly disengages from the engine and it continues on its own.

Sure, everyone knows that you say. But if you ever see any of those old movies where the guy has to stand in front of the car and turn a crank to get the engine started can appreciate what it was like before the self-starter was invented.

Thirty -nine years after this day in 1856, Charles F. Kettering, got his patent for the electric car starter. Kettering’s electric starter had been first installed on the 1912 Cadillac. By the early 1920s Kettering’s self-starting motor would be installed on just about every car made. That refinement in automobile ownership made the automobile more attractive, especially to women. It was the beginning of the automobile culture that continues to this day.

Kettering and his company, DELCO (Dayton ELectronics COrporation), went on to create a number of improvements to the automobile including shock absorbers, the automatic transmission, quick-drying automotive paint, and safety glass.

Although he was most famous for his contributions to the auto industry, Charles Kettering is also known for developing several medical innovations such as an incubator for premature infants, venereal disease treatments and a number of magnetic diagnostic devices. During his time at DELCO and later at General Motors (GM), Mr. Kettering accumulated a great fortune. In 1945 he and Alfred Sloan, another GM vice president, used their wealth to establish the Sloan-Kettering Institute for cancer research.

In 1856 on this day Charles Kettering was born in Loudonville, Ohio and over the next 82 years of his life he would be awarded 140 patents for things that we take for granted today. Charles is 159 years old– be sure to wish him a happy birthday and say thanks!

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