Diary & Letters of Rutherford B. Hayes

Volume I [1834 – 1860]

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of the family -our little family. We buried her with suitable
solemnities and were inconsolable several days.
Before Mother returned a district school was opened near our
house and Mr. Wasson thought it best for us to go. The school
was free to all and was crowded with scholars of all ages, from
little folks of our own size up to young men grown. The school-
master, Daniel Granger, was a little, thin, wiry, energetic Yankee,
with black hair, sallow complexion, and piercing black eyes; and
when excited appeared to us a demon of ferocity. He flogged
great strapping fellows of twice his size, and talked savagely
of making them "dance about like a parched pea," and throwing
them through the walls of the schoolhouse. He threw a large
jack-knife, carefully aimed so as just to miss, at the head of a
boy who was whispering near me. All the younger scholars
were horribly afraid of him. We thought our lives were in
danger. We knew he would kill some of us. Fanny and I begged
Mr. Wasson with many tears to take us out of school. But he
knew Mr. Granger to be a kind-hearted little man [and] insisted
on our going. We then looked forward to Mother's return as
our only hope. We grew homesick. We had never before been
separated from Mother and went about mourning together and
could not be comforted. One dismal rainy day we were told as
we came out of school that Mother had returned. She had
travelled on horseback five days through mud and water from
Lower Sandusky, now Fremont. We flew to meet her with a joy
rarely experienced even in childhood. We staid at home from
school that afternoon, sitting in Mother's lap and clinging to her
in perfect happiness.
During the following winter, about 1831, Sarah Moody, now
Mrs. Kilbourne, came from Massachusetts and spent several
months with us. She was the first relative we had ever seen ex-
cept members of our own family. Our cousin was then about
nineteen or twenty years old and had many accomplishments not
then common in Delaware. We soon grew very fond and very
proud of her. Fanny at once began to learn from our cousin
and was soon possessed of all her acquirements. I shall never
forget how we enjoyed her recitations of poetry and how Fanny
soon learned from her lips "The Adventures of a Raindrop,"

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asking Sarah to repeat it without letting the object be known
until she had it by heart.
After Mrs. Wasson left us Fanny and Mother did all the
housework. Fanny became ambitious to make a good house-
keeper and easily acquired all the mysteries of cooking, baking,
and the like. She rose early, called us up to breakfast in the
winter before daylight, and on washing days--Mondays--
hurried us all up and, working with Mother, often had the
clothes "out to dry" before breakfast time. Once in her eager-
ness to be early up and doing she had a fire built and kettles of
water boiling, when, upon calling up Mother, it was found not
to be yet midnight!
In 1834 we made our first journey. In company with Mother,
we visited all our relatives in Vermont and Massachusetts. I
recollect very little about Fanny during this trip. She was with
her cousins, the girls; I was with the boys. I recollect I was
proud to hear what was said about her. Grandfather Hayes
and Grandmother and, indeed, all the kindred loved her. There
were several superior girls among the Hayes cousins. In fact,
the observations I then made are the foundation of the notion
I have often expressed that the Hayes women were far superior
to the men. And yet I think that then and since Fanny has al-
ways been the favorite of all the grandchildren. Uncle William
R. Hayes, the youngest and best educated of our uncles, loved
her as if she were his own daughter. Uncle Austin Birchard,
a man of sterling native talent and of a warm generous nature,
used to watch her with his bright face and eyes beaming with
love and delight. From this time I began to prize her at her true
value and to think of her as the joy of our little home circle.
Whatever advantages other boys had over me, none had such a
sister as mine!
During the next two years Fanny attended a high school, the
best in the village, and she was the best scholar in it. Mrs.
Howison, I think, was the principal. In addition to her studies at
school, she read all, or nearly all, the readable books in the cir-
culating library and all she could borrow. Before she went to a
boarding school at Putnam, she had read all the novels and the
greater part of all the other books in Delaware. I say all the

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novels, perhaps there were some exceptions; but in 1837 I spent
about six months galloping through novels and found none which
she had not read.
In the spring of 1835 we made a trip together to Lower San-
dusky to visit Uncle Sardis. It happened that General Hinton
was in the stage and was very kind to us, taking care that we
were provided at the hotels with seats at the table, sleeping rooms
at night, and whatever we needed. Supposing that he attended to
everything, I asked no questions about bills and travelled the
whole distance, getting regular meals and sto ping twice--at
Tiffin and Marion--over night without paying a cent. I first
learned this when, having reached Lower Sandusky, I prepared
to settle with General Hinton the bills he had paid for us on the
route. On our return two or three weeks after, it was all made
right. Our good luck was due to Uncle Sardis. All the land-
lords knew him, and in some way--probably from the stage
drivers --it was learned that we were his little folks. While we
were at Lower Sandusky, I was occupied chiefly in watching the
fishermen drawing their seines in the Sandusky River and in
gazing open-mouthed at Governor Lucas' army of invasion or
protection who were marching to the Michigan frontier.
It was perhaps this year, soon after our return home, that
Fanny was chosen by the girls Queen of May. She heard that
one of her school friends, Miss-- (possibly Cynthia Lamb) was
disappointed in not being selected. Fanny quietly contrived to
decline the honor and to have it conferred on her friend.
In the summer of 1836 I went to Norwalk to attend the
Methodist Academy, under the charge of Mr. Chapman [Chap-
lin], and was separated from Fanny a great part of the time until
I left college in 1842. We corresponded very regularly when
apart and spent the vacations together. Before I left home to
prepare for college, Fanny was in the habit of teasing me a
great deal. To her ridicule I could only oppose my superior
strength. When I was from nine to twelve years old we had
many little quarrels, she always having the better with her tongue
and I with my fists. This was a singular fact in our lives. I
remember how I feared her ridicule. We loved each other
dearly and yet behaved often as if we were hateful enough.

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After I returned from my first absence at school, we had one
renewal of our former quarrels, which we laughed ourselves out
of before it was fairly begun, and from that time we were loving
sister and brother, our love growing stronger and warmer with
every meeting, without the slightest interruption or jar, to the
day of her death. She cultivated her character and disposition
with as much care as she improved her mind, and with what
wonderful and glorious success!
While I was at the Norwalk Academy and Mr. Webb's school
in Middletown, Connecticut, preparing for college, she took the
liveliest interest in my studies and improvement. She went with
Mother to a seminary in Putnam. I heard much of her scholar-
ship and beauty. This was the first time it ever occurred to me
that she was not rather plain-looking. I began to grow proud
of her. Never shall I forget the happiness with which we met
in the fall of 1838 on my return from Middletown. She had
graduated and I had returned for a short visit before entering
college. We had been separated a whole year. The stage-coach
drove up to the door of our old home in Delaware. Fanny,
her face so beautiful and joyous, ran out to meet me. Alas!
how my heart aches as I write! We are to meet no more this
side the grave!

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NORWALK, June 21, 1836.
DEAR UNCLE:--I do not think I shall have to go home
because I am homesick. I like staying here better than any
other school in Ohio. The object of my letter is to have you
send me - if you can get - my shoes. I want them very much.
I am well. Do not give my love to anybody. This letter is large
enough for me and a bad pen.
RUTHERFORD B: HAYES.
S. BIRCHARD.

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NORWALK, HURON Co., OHIO,
October 13, 1836.
DEAR MOTHER:- Today is Sunday. I thought it would [be]
as well [to] write now as to put it off any longer. I received
your letter Wednesday. I was very glad to hear from you and
that you was getting well. I am doing very well in my studies.
Wednesday was composition day. I wrote one about Liberty.
A week ago Wednesday was speaking day. I spoke a eulogy on
Lord Chatham. I got along tolerably well, considering. I think
that I can so that I will not be scared quite to death. I was not
scared as much as the most of the boys are the first time they
speak.
Uncle Birchard was here Thursday evening. He was on his
return home from New York; he stopped only an half hour; he
seemed in very good health. He gave Mr. Chaplin money to bear
my expenses. He, I think, said he saw General Harrison in New
York. He said there was more attention paid the general than
any other man that ever was in the city except Lafayette. They
expected to see a childish old man, but they thought different
very soon, for there are few men that can make a better offhand
speech than General Harrison.
The weather is cold. It snowed here Monday near two inches
deep; it snowed this morning one inch deep; it is all gone now.
The sun is very warm. Election took place the 11th. This
county give the Whigs five hundred majority; they hear from
half the counties General Vance (he is a Whig) [candidate for
Governor] is six thousand ahead so far. Geauga County gave
eighteen hundred majority to Vance. Delaware County gave
three hundred. Write soon. Tell who is elected to the offices of
the county. Ask Mr. Wasson about it. Mrs. Briggs [the woman
with whom he boarded] sends her love to you. Eliza does too.
Give my love to all who need it. I will write to Fanny soon.
Your affectionate son,
RUTHERFORD B. HAYES.
MRS. SOPHIA HAYES.

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MIDDLETOWN, CT., December 9, [1837].
DEAR UNCLE: - In compliance with your request that I should
write to you in about a month, I have commenced a letter. I will
begin with my studies. I study Latin and Greek; am in the same
class as W. Lane. At first it was rather hard to keep up with
the class but now I can get along very well. We get up at half
past 6 o'clock, breakfast at 7, prayers, and school begins at 9;
dinner at 12; begins at I till 4, then from 6 till 9. I like this
school very much indeed. I never heard of a school that I should
like near so well. All the scholars like the school very much and
that is more than can be said of most schools. We all like Mr.
W [Webb] very much. I think he is the best calculated to take
care of a parcel of boys of any man I 'most ever saw, for they
soon find out that he is not to be trifled with, and at the same
time that he is very pleasant when they suit him.
It is rather curious how always it happens always that when
I have staid out of school six months that I enter in the same
class with others who have been to school all the time. When
A. Picket went to Norwalk he was in the same class with me.
As there was no class that he could go into, he had to go in a
class below him and in six months he had not got much farther
than he was when he left me, so that I went in the same class.
It was nearly the same way here. Although I have to study
rather harder, I'd rather study when I do study and play the
more.
As you know, I have an aversion to the Yankees. I hate to
find one that there a'n't some fault peculiar to them where I
cannot have an excuse for. I had begun to hunt up some ex-
cuse for Mr. W-, when I found that he was a real Buckeye in
every sense of the word, and thinks as much of the Queen of the
West as I do--and that [is] not a few. The folks here cele-
brated the Whig victory here as usual. Half of the subscription
went for powder and fireworks, the other half to the poor -a
first-rate way to electioneer, I take it.
The time flies very fast indeed. I never knew a month to pass
quicker or happier at school any how. I am well prepared for
winter. I've only had to buy one book. W. Lane sends his
respects. He's well, so am I. Give my respects to all my cousins
and all the belles. Tell J. Pease [John R. Pease, a cousin, living
in Lower Sandusky, who was an ardent Democrat] not to go
crazy on the New York election for accidents will happen to the
best of folks. - Mr. W- is a Whig.
Your affectionate nephew,
R. B. HAYES.
S. BIRCHARD.

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MIDDLETOWN, CON., Jan. 6, [1838].
DEAR MANLY:--I received your letter about a month ago,
and was very glad to receive it. The time flies the fastest here
of any place I ever was in, and you know that it would be very
different if I was not happy. I think you must have had lots of
fun election times. It seems rather hard that I can never be at
home election day I have not been there for four years election
day and then I did not know enough about matters and things to
see anything strange in it. We have had lots of fun here too.
The celebration of the New York victory in this city was splen-
did. There was nearly a constant roar of cannon throughout
the day and in the evening three hundred dollars' worth of fire-
works [was] sent off, and from the great number of fireballs
flying in the air we could read anywhere within two miles.
Thanksgiving was the 3oth of November. I suppose you
have heard of the richness of the dinner in this Yankee country
on that day; but it beat everything all hollow that I ever saw.
Our dessert alone, I should think, would cost fifty dollars. This
place is remarkable for its confectionery and we had things
[I] never dreamed of there being such.
The Nanjacks must have thought they were doing it election
night to be parading the streets. I should think Allen must have
felt rather cheap when he found he wasn't elected. The Whigs
acted rather foolish to make so much fuss about the victory they
knew they would gain. H. Williams must have been half
drunk to have tried to get the balls from a parcel of boys.
Mr. Webb for our amusement read an account (just now) of
a lawsuit in Massachusetts between a couple of sailors where
it was decided (after two years' lawing) that each party should
pay his own costs, about twelve hundred and fifty dollars apiece.
It [the lawsuit] was about eighty-two cents' worth of slabs!
I should like to have seen that fight of your letter. Shinn ought
to stop fighting. Who do you mean by Rosem? Old Goodrich?
There has been no slaying [sleighing] of any account here, but
there's been skating pretty much ever since the 16th of Novem-
ber. For about a week there has been very warm pleasant
weather, so warm the ice has got out of the river and we saw
a steamboat go down the river yesterday, the 5th of January.
The river here is half a mile wide. Just before it shut up it
was covered with vessels of every kind all the time.
Tell me how A. Picket flourishes with the gals. Tell him
I flourish like a green bay-tree. Tell that very dear friend of
mine (whoever he is) that's so particular about how I give him
my love, to write to me how he wants me to give it to him and
I'll try and accommodate him, and if he won't do that, tell him
to go to Canada with his sheepskin fiddle and fight the British
for a living!!!
Manly, if you study hard as long as you tell me about, you
beat me all hollow for I study only nine hours and I learn the
fastest I ever did in my life. Give my love to Mr. Wasson's
family. Tell D. Selvaene you want [to] know how his name
is spelt for I shall want to write it some of these oddsome-
shorts [sic!].
Now I am a-going to run on a certain passage in your letter.
You said that you was very respectfully mine. Well now, I have
strong reasons to doubt your being mine; for if you was, I'd
set you to work to earn money for me to spend. My opinion
is that you belong to Mr. C. Covell of Delaware, Delaware
County, Ohio.
This is a pleasant town. There are about eight thousand in-
habitants. It is a real Van Buren hole; nearly every man is
one. Mr. Webb is a real Whig. You may tell our folks that I
shall write to them soon. Don't show them any more of my
letters.
I remain your dear, loving, kind, everlasting, hurrah-boys
friend, R. B. HAYES.

P. S.-- This letter has nothing in it for the best of reasons.
I've nothing to write. (Write soon.)
To M. D. COVELL,
From R. B. HAYES.