Lucy Webb Hayes and a visit to Spiegel Grove

My apologies for the massive delay in writing and publishing this post. It's been nearly a year since I finished reading First Lady: The Life of Lucy Webb Hayes by Emily Apt Geer and visited Spiegel Grove. I typed out the notes below, which reflect what I found most interesting from Geer's biography, way back in September 2024, and I have no desire to extrapolate further (but I did convert most of the notations into complete thoughts and full sentences). I'll try to do better with Lucretia Garfield.  

• While Milton Stern makes the claim that Harriet Lane, niece of President James Buchanan, was the first woman to be referred to as First Lady, Geer informs us that "reference to Lucy Hayes as 'first lady' [in the press] marked the first known appearance in print of the term" (p. 138).
• Lucy Hayes was the first wife of a United States president to have earned a college degree (Cincinnati Wesleyan Female College), but she did not necessarily support education for women in general. AN while Fanny Platt introduced Lucy to the idea of women's suffrage, Lucy Hayes failed to support it in any meaningful way. It leads to interesting conjecture of what influence Lucy Hayes's sister-in-law could have had had on Lucy, had Fanny not died young (1856): "In the long run, Lucy's loss of Fanny was of more significance than Rutherford's. Fanny's intellectual standards had left an indelible impression upon her brother, but Lucy, only twenty-five, vitally needed the stimulation of a prolonged companionship with an intelligent and loving woman such as Fanny Hayes Platt" (pp. 33-34)
• "In time - and within the boundaries open to a nineteenth-century woman - Lucy would become almost as concerned about politics as her husband. Since election to public office would have been impossible for her, she learned to identify completely with Rutherford's political career and to regard it as their career" (p. 39). [I'm less convinced by this argument][edited July 7, 2025: I don't remember why I was not fully convinced by this argument other than what is in the notes that follow.]
• "The years as the wife of an Ohio governor prepared Lucy Hayes to become one of the most effective First Ladies of the latter half of the nineteenth century. Like many women of the period, she learned to identify herself completely with her husband's career and to balance her activities as hostess with the demands of a young family. Although not the custom for a governor's wife to be involved directly in politics, Lucy could and did work behind the scenes to influence legislation" (p. 93) [again, less convinced] 
• public activities mostly interested in welfare of young people and problems of handicapped and wounded soldiers 
• "Lucy could take a strong position on issues involving the welfare of veterans and children ... but she found it difficult to take the same kind of a stand on as controversial a political and social issue as woman suffrage" (p. 97) 
• She did not dispute her husband's stances when it came to women in work and woman's suffrage; "Instead, Lucy's charitable activities, family affairs, and housekeeping ... appeared to be her primary interests" (p. 98)
• "For Lucy, everyday life in the White House soon settled into a pleasant routine, which served, consciously or unconsciously, as a good example of middle-class propriety and Christian morality" (p. 145)
• Lucy Hayes bore criticism for the Temperance policy of the Hayes White House, and while she held religious conviction and practiced Temperance from young age, it was Rutherford Hayes who actually kept alcohol out of the White House (148-50). She abstained personally, but "she did not force her views on others (151). Rutherford Hayes "wished to set a good example for the nation" and to keep temperance advocates in the Republican Party (152). Geer argues that the most important reason was "Hayes's firm conviction that government officials should conduct themselves at all times with discretion and dignity" (153).
• "Except for her stance on temperance - which was as much Rutherford's as hers - Lucy shrank from involvement in controversial issues. Her feeling that radicalism and eccentricity marked the woman suffrage movement, plus Rutherford's sentiment against the enfranchisement of women, kept her from giving assistance" to the movement (237-8)
• "As Lucy Hayes approached the end of her initial year as First Lady, women reporters began to wonder if she really was the 'new woman' they had hoped for at the time of the inauguration. She lived up to their expectations as a hostess and as a supervisor of her family's activities, but did she consider herself a spokesperson for women? Was she interested in expanding opportunities for women in education and business? Did she believe in woman suffrage?" (p. 167) 
• consistently disappointed, followed husband 
• "she continued ... to be noncommittal on woman suffrage and professional education for women. 
• Lucy's apparent lack of interest in encouraging business enterprise by women also puzzled feminists of her era" (168). 
• "women interested in governmental activities continued to hope that Lucy would become more active in politics" (169)
• "Lucy Hayes, as did most presidential wives until the time of Eleanor Roosevelt, attached more importance to the supervision of White House social activities than involvement in reform movements" (200). "While Lucy showed an interest in politics, her main concern centered around the welfare of her family and friends" (207)
• "Although, as the first president's wife with a college degree, Lucy was in a position to serve as a role model for ambitious young women, it appears that she did not believe women should be educated for a profession such as medicine. Both Rutherford and Lucy, however, though that common school education should be free and universal" (237)
• "[A] willingness to help persons in desperate need of financial assistance reflected Lucy's innate kindness rather than any interest in abstract political ideas and policies. The zest for politics ascribed to Lucy by Washington correspondents was due more to her concern for people than to a study of the problems involved. Sometimes Rutherford discussed political issues with her, but it would have been contrary to her concept of herself as a supportive wife to have tried to dictate his actions" (239)
• "Lucy's passion for social harmony, which had marked her tenure as First Lady, continued to influence her actions even after the family retired to Spiegel Grove" = preference for limited public activity (252)
• "at no time did she enjoy life more than this last sojourn at Spiegel Grove" - close to all her children, friendships and church activities in Fremont (261)
• Note that they did not pursue the same college education for their daughter as Lucy's parents had sought for her (267), content with their daughter just finishing school
• White House Easter Egg Roll - "After Congress had passed a law closing the Capitol grounds to children rolling eggs on Easter Monday, Lucy, reluctant to have them disappointed, invited them to use the White House lawn. The grounds of the Mansion have been used for this happy event ever since" (215)

Published in 1984 by The Kent State University Press and the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center, Geer's biography closely parallels what I learned on a tour of the Hayes museum and Spiegel Grove. Because it was such a close parallel, I don't remember learning anything new on the tour, but I do remember being enthralled by the amazing wallpapers inside the house at Spiegel Grove. And as a lover of wallpaper, myself, I was happy to see that it extended beyond the Victorian era, when the house was first decorated and wallpaper would have been expected for a family of the Hayes's stature, and continued into the redecorations of the mid-20th century that are on display on the upper floors of the home. I wish I had taken more photographs, but the two below give you a taste: