The Life, Public Services and Select Speeches of Rutherford B. Hayes | Page 3

journey had to be performed by stage, and
consumed two months in going and returning. She made a second
journey to New England when Rutherford was nine years old. Her
amiability of disposition made her the favorite guest at the homes of
her neighbors. The straightened circumstances of a family deprived of
its head required the aid of industry and economy. She was known, in
village parlance, as a "good manager." Afflictions which would have
made perfect a more faulty character purified her own. She died in
Columbus, Ohio, October 30, 1866, at the age of seventy-four. She had
been a consistent member of the Presbyterian Church for fifty years.
Mrs. William A. Platt, the sister of Governor Hayes, who died July 16,
1856, at the age of thirty-six, was a lady whose virtues and good deeds
are enduring memories in Columbus homes. The Hon. Aaron F. Perry,
of Cincinnati, in a public address, made this allusion to her worth: "Mrs.
Platt, in the prime of a happy womanhood, passed beautifully away; not
a white hair on her head, not a wrinkle on her brow, not a cloud upon
her hopes; but in the full maturity of life and love she has gone where
life and happiness are perfected." He whose character it is our duty to
make known reflects this tender light from two lives: "She loved me as
an only sister loves a brother whom she imagines almost perfect, and I
loved her as an only brother loves a sister who is perfect. Let me be just
and truthful, wise and pure and good for her sake. How often I think of
her! I read of the death of any one worthy of love, and she is in my
thoughts. I see--but all things high and holy remind me of her."
The conclusions which we draw from the examination of the records of
the ancestral descent of Rutherford B. Hayes are, that his progenitors
have in each generation displayed courage and capacity to fight limited
only by the strength of the enemy to hold out. It was a habit they had to
fight on the side in the right, and on the side that won. Three of his
immediate ancestors--Elias Birchard, Israel Smith, and Daniel
Austin--gave proofs of valor and patriotism in the War of Independence.
Another characteristic of the Hayes stock is the almost uniform
tendency toward longevity. It is a robust race, presenting an
extraordinary number of large families. The divine injunction to

increase and multiply has been obeyed with religious fidelity. Upon the
whole, the stock is good, and bids fair to become better. As men suffer
discredit from disreputable progenitors, they ought to enjoy credit from
reputable ancestors.
CHAPTER II.
BOYHOOD AND EDUCATION.
Birthplace--University--Springs--Kossuth's Allusion--Early
Instructors--Sent East--College Life--Began the Study of Law--At
Harvard Law School--Story, Greenleaf, Webster, Agassiz, and
Longfellow--Admission to the Bar.
The town of Delaware, the county seat of the county of Delaware, is
located near the center of Ohio, twenty-five miles northwest of
Columbus. It is a prosperous place of seven thousand people, the most
of whom live in comfortable-looking, newly-built homes, and has been
hitherto chiefly known for its University and its Springs. The Ohio
Wesleyan University is the most flourishing literary institution of the
great Methodist denomination in the West. The White Sulphur Spring
is a fountain of healing and happiness to the whole region around, and
is regarded with added interest since Kossuth came to drink of its
waters, and, in reply to a welcoming address, eloquently said, that "out
of the Delaware Springs of American sympathy he would fill a cup of
health for his bleeding Hungary."
Three squares from these Springs, near the center of the town, and in a
two-story brick house on William street, Rutherford Birchard Hayes
was born. This has long been Delaware's pride, and will be its fame.
The income of his widowed mother, who was bereft of her husband
four mouths before her son's birth, was derived from the rent of a good
farm lying two miles north of Delaware, on the east side of the
Whetstone. This income, used with frugality, enabled her to commence
the education of her children. They were sent first to the ordinary
schools of the town. The first teacher who enlisted the affections of her
since distinguished pupil was Mrs. Joan Murray, a most worthy woman,

whose funeral Governor Hayes quite recently attended. He began the
study of the Latin and Greek languages with Judge Sherman Finch, a
good classical scholar and a good lawyer, of Delaware, who had been
at one time a tutor in Yale College. Judge Finch heard the recitations of
his pupil in his office at intervals of leisure from the duties of his
profession. The pupil taught his sister each day what