Armed Forces Day

According to the Department of Defense, Armed Forces Day was created in 1949, which means Lew would never have celebrated it. It would probably have been an important holiday to him, however. Lew was very proud of his military service and remained active in veterans' associations and war memorial efforts.

Lew served in both the Mexican War and the Civil War, and actually volunteered for the Spanish-American War. Because he was 71 at the time of the Spanish-American War, his offer was declined. He delivered speeches at occasions such as the dedication of the Greencastle's Soldiers Monument, the reunion of the 11th Indiana in Terre Haute, a United States Naval Academy graduation ceremony, and the dedication ceremony of the Indiana Soldiers and Sailors Monument. He even built a special case in his Study to display some of his military artifacts. With such evidence, we can say confidently that Lew would have appreciated Armed Forces Day.

Lew wasn't the first of his family to serve in the military--his father, David, was a West Point Cadet. Nor was Lew the last. His two grandsons, Tee and Lew, Jr., served in World War I. Tee enlisted in the American Field Ambulance in 1916, before U.S. entry into the war, and drove ambulances for the French Army. After his graduation from Yale, he enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps. He was killed during a surveillance mission near St. Etienne in October of 1918.

Lew, Jr. was in the National Guard and served in Texas during the Mexican Revolution. In September of 1918, he was sent to France, where he served as a captain in the intelligence service. In 1919 his division was inactivated and he served as aide to General E.M. Lewis until 1920.

Later generations of the Wallace family also continued the tradition of military service. Lew's great-grandsons  III and Bill Wallace both served in World War II, and Lew's great-great-grandson Sanford Miller served in Vietnam.

With such a strong legacy, is it any wonder we think Lew would have approved of a holiday set aside for civilians to thank members of the military for their sacrifices?

Thanksgiving and the Wallaces

We talk a lot about Lew and Susan Wallace here at the blog, but someone who isn't mentioned often is Lew's father David Wallace. David  attended West Point Military Academy and began practicing law in Indiana in 1823. He served in the Indiana State Legislature from 1828 to 1830. In 1831 he was elected Lieutenant-Governor of Indiana.

From 1837 to 1840, David Wallace served as Indiana's sixth governor. On October 30, 1840, David signed the first state proclamation for Thanksgiving and a day of prayer. So if you live in Indiana and are planning to have turkey and pumpkin pie later today, you have Lew Wallace's father to thank!

Samuel K. Hoshour & Lew Wallace

Sometimes an educator is remembered less for their accomplishments than for the history made by their students. Such is the case with Samuel K. Hoshour. In 1840, when Lew Wallace was 13 years old his father, David, once again sought to impress the importance of an education on his son. David sent Lew to school in Centerville, Indiana (some reports report that the school was actually located nearby in Cambridge City). This area of Wayne County had been settled by whites beginning in 1814. It had a significant population of Quakers who held fast to their traditions of anti-slavery and the value of education. By 1827, the Wayne County Seminary was built and for more than 50 years it served as an institution of higher education.

The Seminary was later sold to the Methodist Church and renamed Whitewater College with the Reverend Cyrus Nutt serving as president in the 1850s. Nutt would later go on to serve as president of Indiana University. In addition to Lew Wallace, among the distinguished individuals educated in Centerville were Ambrose Burnside (Civil War general), John Stevenson Tarkington (father of Booth Tarkington), Emily Meredith (mother of Meredith Nicholson), and Oliver P. Morton (Indiana’s Civil War governor).

David sent Lew to Centerville because of Professor Samuel K. Hoshour’s great reputation as an educator. Professor Hoshour deserved this reputation, at least in Lew Wallace’s eyes. Hoshour was born in York County, Pennsylvania in December 1803. He was trained for the ministry in the Lutheran Church, but converted to the “Campbellite Doctrine” and was ostracized from his church. He travelled west with his wife, and settled in Wayne County in 1835 where he quickly developed a reputation as an outstanding instructor and intellect who could read five languages and speak three fluently.

Hoshour came nearest to being what young Lew imagined an ideal school master should be. While Hoshour wielded the rod, he did so with “discrimination and undeniable justice.” Wallace wrote: “He was the first to observe a glimmer of writing capacity in me. He gave me volumes of lectures on rules of composition, English, and style.” Hoshour invited Wallace to his home in the evenings to give Lew extra help with the thorny and perplexing problems of algebra.

Professor Samuel K. Hoshour

Recognizing that Wallace did not have an aptitude for mathematics, instead of beating the student, Hoshour humanely applied himself to cultivating the abilities he believed were within Wallace’s reach. In an evening’s interview with the student who could not find his way, Hoshour recognized Wallace’s native intellect and his interest in reading and self education. The Professor presented Wallace with lectures on rhetoric by John Quincy Adams that contained rules for composition. Wallace went on to write that Hoshour took a New Testament and gave it to the student, saying: “There, read that! It is the story of the birth of Jesus Christ. This was entirely new to me and I recall the impression made by the small part given to the three wise men. Little did I dream then what those few verses were to bring me—that out of them Ben-Hur, was one day to be evoked.”

Hoshour taught in Centerville and Cambridge City for eleven years. Teaching did not pay well, and he attempted to earn a better income to support himself and his family, but with health issues that began in the 1840s and a series of poor investments, after a decade Hoshour returned to teaching. In 1855 he joined the faculty of Northwestern Christian University (today’s Butler University) in Indianapolis. In 1858, he was pressed into service as president but after three years, he left the presidency and resumed teaching at the University. In 1862, he was appointed State Superintendant of Education. After a distinguished career in education he passed away in 1883 and was buried in Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis.

As Wallace wrote in his autobiography: “I can see the professor standing in his door, lamp in hand and bareheaded, dismissing me for the night, with exactly the same civilities he would have sped an official the most important in the state. Ah, the kindly cunning of the shrewd old gentleman! He had dropped a light into my understanding and caught me. So, step by step, the professor led me into and out of depths I had never dreamed of, and through tangles of subtlety and appreciations which proved his mind as thoroughly as they tried mine. Before the year was out he had, as it were, taken my hand in his and introduced me to Byron, Shakespeare, and old Isaiah. The year was a turning-point of my life, and out of my age and across his grave I send him, Gentle master, hail, and all sweet rest.” Every educator who has sparked the imagination of a student would appreciate Wallace’s remembrance of the teacher who changed his life and changed history.

Source:
Lew Wallace An Autobiography, Harper & Brothers, 1906, pp 55-58
Montgomery Magazine, November 1980. “Wallace – the writer.” Pat Cline

The General Lew Wallace Study & Museum celebrates and renews belief in the power of the individual spirit to affect American history and culture.



Education the Lew Wallace Way

As a youth, Lew Wallace managed to develop a reputation as a truant and a rascal. He used any number of excuses to avoid the classroom and undertake adventure in the great outdoors. He was part of an informal group of Indianapolis boys, who established “The Red Eye and the Hay Press Club,” which met in a loft accessible only by a trap door. The boys were reputed to raid gardens, pull bell ropes, and generally create havoc as they ran through the countryside. In 1840, when Wallace was about 13 years old his truancy hit a new level. A huge rally was planned in Battleground, Indiana in support of William Henry Harrison’s bid for president. This promised to be far more interesting to Lew than any classroom studies.

Log Cabin & Hard Cider
Campaign of 1840 for
Wallace family friend
William Henry Harrison

Twenty thousand Whig supporters and delegates converged on the tiny community a few miles north of Lafayette. It’s said the procession coming up from Indianapolis formed a column twenty-five miles long. With his father away on business, Lew decided to join this parade—without letting his stepmother Zerelda or anyone else know—as it headed north. Fortunately, one of Lew’s uncles saw him on the road and got word back to the family. Lew stayed at this “Log Cabin and Hard Cider” rally for almost two weeks. As the rally concluded a church revival started up and Lew stayed to see part of that enterprise before finally wandering the seventy or so miles back to Indianapolis.

This was not his first, nor his last escapade. A few years later when Lew was about 16 years old he and a friend, Aquilla Cook, determined to create their own “Huckleberry Finn” adventure. Aquilla Cook was the son of John Cook, the first State House librarian, and disappeared from history a few years after his adventure with Lew Wallace. Aquilla married a dancer in Cincinnati and then killed a man who had reportedly made unwelcomed advances to his wife. He escaped arrest and was last heard from when he wrote a letter to a Cincinnati newspaper boasting of how he fooled the police and escaped arrest.

Lew Wallace ca. 1850

However, years before this drama played out, Wallace and Cook had been reading about the Alamo and the heroics of the freedom fighters in Texas. Together the teenagers decided that it was their duty to reinforce Commodore Moore of the Texan Navy. Although they were unsuccessful in recruiting others to join them, the two boys commandeered a skiff and began floating down the White River, intent on finding a flatboat headed to New Orleans. Their plan to reinforce the Texas Navy was thwarted when Zerelda Wallace’s father, Dr. John Sanders, and a local constable caught up with the boys.

This adventure was the one that finally led to Lew Wallace’s father to throw up his hands and throw in the towel. As Lew reported in his autobiography, his father approached the boy with his accustomed good address and graceful manner saying:

Were I to die tonight, your portion of my estate would not keep you a month. I have struggled to give you and your brothers what, in my opinion, is better than money—education. Since your sixth year, I have paid school-bills for you; but—one day you will regret the opportunities you have thrown away. I am sorry, disappointed, mortified; so, without shutting the door upon you, I am resolved that from today you must go out and earn your own livelihood. I shall watch your course hopefully.


David Wallace


It took a few more years and a few more adventures before David Wallace began to see his son settle down, grow in resolve, and focus on accomplishments that brought credit to the Wallace name. Throughout his life, Lew Wallace adored and respected his father and, just as David Wallace predicted, Lew grew to understand what had been lost when he squandered his education. He grew to be a man who learned by experience, read voraciously, challenged himself routinely, and became a devoted life-long learner. While Lew Wallace’s time in the classroom may have been a disappointment, perhaps his education was not truly squandered—he was just a boy who never let school get in the way of his learning.

Sources:
“The Early Life of Lew Wallace,” Indiana Magazine of History, September 1941 by Irving McKee.

The General Lew Wallace Study & Museum celebrates and renews belief in the power of the individual spirit to affect American history and culture.

Zelda Harrison Seguin Wallace

Lew Wallace and his brother William each married women from prominent families who brought prestige, money and important Hoosier connections to the Wallace family. These were not, however, the only sons of David Wallace to marry well. David had six children by his second wife, Zerelda. Three of these children died in childhood. Their only surviving son was born in 1852, named David Jr., and married a woman of prestige with connections far beyond Indiana.


When doing historical research it is generally easier to find records on men than it is women. In the case of David Wallace, Jr. however, it is his wife who is much better recorded. In 1870, census records list eighteen year old David, Jr. as a baggage master for a railroad in Indianapolis. Ten years later in 1880 he is living in the home of his sister Mary Wallace Leathers with his mother, Zerelda and working as a transfer agent for an Indianapolis railroad. Reportedly a very handsome man of 28, David, Jr. married the beautiful Zelda Harrison Seguin in Baltimore on July 31 that same year.

Zelda was one of the most famous opera singers of her day. A contralto, Zelda became known as the Gypsy Queen because of her tremendous success in the opera “The Bohemian Girl.” Among her accomplishments on stage, she introduced the role of Bizet’s “Carmen” in English to the opera world in a performance in New Orleans and in her last New York appearances in 1886 she performed in “The Mikado.”

Anne Seguin

Born in 1848, and a native of New York City, her parents discovered that young Zelda Harrison had a remarkable voice. They placed her under the tutelage of Mrs. Anne Seguin one of the most important opera teachers of the late 19th century. Mrs. Seguin was trained at the Royal Academy and had an extraordinary career of her own, including her debut performance at Her Majesty’s Theatre in London in 1836. Together with her husband, Edward, Anne sang at the coronation of Queen Victoria. From 1840 until his death in 1852, Anne and Edward dominated the opera world. They were particularly famous for their performances of opera in English and the list of their accomplishments is still highly regarded by opera historians.

Zelda made her stage debut at a concert in Saratoga in 1865 when she was seventeen years old singing popular songs of the day. During her time studying with Anne Seguin, she met one of Anne’s children, Edward Seguin, Jr. Although more than ten years her senior, they fell in love and married in 1867. Edward, an opera singer, was trained at the Conservatoire in Paris and the Royal Academy in London and had been touring in America since his return from Europe in 1860. Together Edward, Jr. and Zelda performed throughout the county. In the 1870s, they had a son they named Edward S.R. Seguin.

Zelda’s husband, Edward, was resoundingly successful and, like his father, one of the most popular performers of his day. He taught Zelda about make-up, stage presence, and acting. In 1877, Zelda was one of the featured performers at a New York Press Club entertainment held in Steinway Hall with guest speakers that included Mark Twain. She was singled out in coverage of the evening with the following:

Edward Sequin

Mrs. Zelda Seguin, a favorite among favorites, not only with the journalistic fraternity, who have always expressed good wishes for her success, but with everybody else possessed of taste and feeling, raised a whirlwind of applause by her singing of Hullah's "Storm." The excitement could not be stayed by anything less than a ballad, and the lady sang a pretty little Irish song--"I wrote my love a letter."

Her husband also helped manage Zelda’s career by selecting parts she would and, just as importantly, would not sing. For instance, he would not let her perform in Wagnerian operas because he felt Wagner’s work did not suit the range of her voice. Under his tutelage, Zelda Seguin became internationally famous and, like her in-laws, was especially known for performing operas in English that were traditionally performed in Italian or French.

In early October of 1879, Edward died suddenly of heart disease in Rochester, New York at the age of about 42. Stricken three weeks earlier in Jersey City, he didn’t consider the illness serious as he thought he was having an asthma attack and continued to travel with his wife and other performers. Zelda did not perform the evening of his death and accompanied her husband’s body back to New York, but the show had to go on and in spite of their grief the rest of the cast and crew performed as scheduled at the Grand Opera House in Rochester.

Zelda Harrison Seguin Wallace

The beautiful widow and famed performer based in New York met the Indianapolis based David Wallace, Jr. in February of 1880 at the home of a mutual friend in Indianapolis. At the time, David was the Master of Transportation for the Indianapolis-Terre Haute railway. After a “season of bouquets and correspondence” David went to New York to propose and within ten months of her husband’s death, Zelda and David were married at St. Luke’s Church in Baltimore. David was joined by his sister, Agnes Wallace Steiner and in a detailed description of the ceremony the news account made note that “Diamonds were the jewels” worn by the bride. The quiet service received wide discussion as it was a distinct surprise to many of her friends. This marriage cost Zelda a small fortune because her mother-in-law, Anne Seguin had revised her will just weeks after her son’s death leaving Zelda $20,000 in cash to be held for her benefit provided she not remarry. With her marriage to David, the money was forfeited and returned to the estate.

Records indicate that Zelda and David, Jr. had a son in October of 1881, who was also named David, but it appears this child died within a year. Census records in 1900 indicate that David and Zelda may have had one more son born in 1891, but the name and fate of this child is unknown. In these records from 1900, David and Zelda are living in Indianapolis adjacent to the prominent Claypool family.

After Edward’s death and her marriage to David, Zelda resumed performing throughout the country. Her last operatic performance in New York was in 1886, but she continued to sing in important venues across the country for a few more years. In 1895, Zelda was still appearing on the concert stage when she was badly injured in a train accident when a train she was on jumped the tracks as it rounded a curve near Coatesville, Indiana. Two people were killed and although she did recover, Zelda was among the most seriously injured. As her professional career came to an end she still supported favored charities with small programs.

After her marriage to David, it appears that Zelda left New York behind and Indianapolis, where David had his railway jobs, became home. As she became a part of the social scene in Indianapolis in the early 1880s, Zelda provided musical performances for receptions and events sponsored by her mother-in-law, Zerelda Wallace, in support of suffrage. Her mother-in-law had not swayed Zelda on this issue. At her first meeting with Zerelda, Zelda confirmed that she was a firm believer in women’s rights. She had been a working woman all of her life and while she did not speak widely on the issue, when she was questioned, “ . . . she expressed her opinion with an effective eloquence as charming as her marvelous voice. To hear her sing you would think she was made for that alone; to hear her talk you would wonder at the naturalness of manner and clear, unsullied, mind.”

In the 1910 census, David’s occupation was listed as the manager of a motor company in Indianapolis and the couple was living along prestigious North Delaware Street—although they may have been living in an apartment rather than a detached home.1911, was terrible year for Zelda. She had all of her costumes and memorabilia in storage but a fire destroyed everything she had saved from her storied career. To add to her burden, David died in May of 1911 at the age of 59. Shortly after his death, Zelda made a much publicized return trip to New York to visit her son, Edward and two grandsons. In newspaper interviews she reminisced about famous people she had worked with, productions she had performed in, and trends she had seen in opera during her career.

In these interviews in 1911, although she was 63 yeas old, Zelda is described as still a young woman in thought, action and manner of speech. Friends who came to call on her found her very much like the Zelda Seguin of old. Just three years later, Zelda passed away at her home in Indianapolis in February of 1914. Timing is everything and while she was remembered in the press for her great stage career with small mentions, Zelda’s death was eclipsed in the newspapers because of the passing of Mrs. Robert Louis Stevenson the same day. David and Zelda are buried together very near his father and adjacent to his uncle, Richard Gatling, in Crown Hill Cemetery. In a family of accomplished men and women, Zelda Harrison Seguin Wallace was certainly one of the most talented and widely admired members of the Wallace family.

Sources:


www.music.library.wisc.edu
www.nytimes.com
Census records 1860-1880, 1900, 1910
www.clerkandthecity.pastispresent.org
www.twainquotes.com

Aurora Daily Express, September 17, 1883

Thanks to Erin Gobel and Roger Adams

The General Lew Wallace Study & Museum celebrates and renews belief in the power of the individual spirit to affect American history and culture.

The Wallaces and Indiana's Governor's Mansions

While there have been six official residences for Indiana's chief executive, only five have been occupied by a Hoosier Governor and the first two in Indianapolis had a checkered history. Indiana's first official Governor's Residence was located in Corydon, the first state capital. This home stood on a small rise overlooking the Statehouse. It served as a home to Governor Jonathan Jennings and his wife, Ann, from 1816 until 1822. While the home no longer stands, it was an important social center and was visited by Presidents Andrew Jackson and James Monroe.


In 1821, Alexander Ralston and Elias Fordham were charged with planning Indiana's new capital. Ralston had worked with architect Pierre L’Enfant in mapping the city of Washington, D.C. and Ralston used some the designs he learned there in the plan he developed for Indianapolis. James Brown Ray, the 4th governor of the State, was the first to live and work out in Indianapolis and he pressed the state government for an official residence. Ray’s wife, Esther, was not considered in decisions made with respect to the new governor’s mansion, which Ralston ultimately decided should be placed near the center of the city on what is now Monument Circle. This residence was completed in 1827 at the impressive cost of $6,500.



The new elegant yellow brick mansion was well designed for official entertaining, but not for family life. Each floor was cut into four large rooms separated by wide intersecting hallways. The walls had large sliding doors that could be opened for grand entertainments but were not convenient for daily life. There was no kitchen, the rooms were drafty and the basement was damp. When the construction was completed and Esther was shown the house she refused to live there saying that every family in town would be able to inspect her washing on Monday morning.

Ultimately, no first family ever lived in this first official governor’s mansion in Indianapolis. The building was used for the Supreme Court offices and the State Library. In his writings, Lew Wallace said he read almost every book in the state library when his father was governor, so Lew probably knew this building very well. It went on to serve as a bank and a kindergarten before it was abandoned and fell into great disrepair. It was auctioned off in 1857 for $667 and torn down to make way for a park that later became Monument Circle.

In the years between 1827 and 1837, Indiana’s governors selected their own places to live and received a housing allowance. When David Wallace became governor in 1837 and he moved his family to Indianapolis, the state legislature provided funds for the purchase of a new official residence and the state purchased the home of Dr. John Sanders for $9,000. This house was located on the corner of Illinois and Market Streets and, coincidently, belonged to David Wallace’s father-in-law.

This is the home where David and Zerelda reared their children until David’s governorship ended in December of 1840. However, like the first governor’s mansion in Indianapolis, this residence also proved to be damp and unhealthy. In 1848, barely ten years after the state had purchased the house, Governor James Whitcomb blamed it for his wife, Martha’s, death. She had been first lady for only 479 days, passing away two weeks after the birth of a daughter—a little girl who later became the 22nd first lady of Indiana when her husband, Claude Matthews, was elected governor in 1893. The house at Illinois and Market continued to be used as the official residence through the 1850s and in a sense, Lew Wallace was returning home when he answered Governor Morton’s call to service in 1861. Morton was living in the home that Wallace’s father had used as Governor and that his step-grandfather Sanders had built. After a short stay, however, Governor Morton found the building unacceptable and refused to live in it. The structure was sold in 1865 and eventually destroyed.

After these two unsuccessful ventures at providing home for the governor in Indianapolis, the State of Indiana did not provide a formal residence for over 50 years. The three homes used for Indiana’s governors since 1919 have offered their residents more comfort, space, and privacy and no first lady since 1919 has had to worry about what the neighbors might say about her Monday morning wash.

Sources: First Ladies of Indiana and The Governors 1816-1984 by Margaret Moore Post, 1984.

The General Lew Wallace Study & Museum celebrates and renews belief in the power of the individual spirit to affect American history and culture.

Jacob Cox, William Merritt Chase, & Lew Wallace

Teaching is a noble profession and many times a student will ultimately outshine the instructor. Such was the case with Jacob Cox. Jacob was born in 1810 in Philadelphia and arrived in Indianapolis as a young man in 1833. He opened a business selling tin ware, stoves and worked as a coppersmith. In 1835, he also opened an artist’s studio. Although he was known as an artist, in 1840, he painted a banner promoting William Henry Harrison’s bid for president that spurred interest in Cox’s artistic work and in 1842 he moved to Cincinnati to open a studio with John Dunn, a former treasurer of the State of Indiana.

The move didn’t work out and after five months, he returned to his business in Indianapolis and continued painting as a sideline, exhibiting annually at the shows of the Cincinnati Art Union. By 1860, he was devoted to art full-time and became well known in Indianapolis for his portraits and landscapes. Among the portraits he became best known for were of a number of the early Indiana governors, including James B. Ray, Noah Noble, Samuel Bigger, Joseph A. Wright, Henry S. Lane and David Wallace.

Although self-taught, Cox was proud to share his talent and he taught willing students—some formally and others informally. Perhaps the most accomplished artist he taught in a formal setting was William Merritt Chase. Chase was a native Hoosier born in 1849. Chase’s family moved to Indianapolis in 1861 and young William worked in the family business as a salesman. Chase showed an early aptitude for art and began studying with a couple of local artists, including Jacob Cox. Chase served briefly in the Navy, and then at his teachers’ urging, he moved to New York City for more formal instruction.

By the late 1860’s his family’s fortunes had turned and Chase was forced to leave his training in New York and he moved to St. Louis where his family had relocated. He became active in the local art community and sold paintings to help support his family. In 1871, he exhibited for the first time in the National Academy. The quality of Chase’s Impressionistic work elicited support from wealthy clients in St. Louis, some of whom offered to sponsor him for two years in Europe. He settled in Munich and began producing work that was recognized internationally. In 1876, his painting “Keying Up”-The Court Jester won a medal at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia.

William Merritt Chase, ca. 1900

In 1878, Chase returned to the United States and settled in New York. Chase proved to be a cultivated, sophisticated, cosmopolitan, and devoted family man, and an esteemed teacher. He married Alice Gerson in 1886 and together they raised eight children during Chase's most energetic artistic period. He counted among his close friends, Winslow Homer, Augustus Saint Gaudens, and later Georgia O’Keefe. Like Jacob Cox, Chase enjoyed sharing his knowledge and taught many of the most important artists on the east coast and he was influential in establishing California art in the early 20th century. Among his many teaching endeavors he established the Chase School which became known as Parsons the New School for Design in New York—now commonly called Parsons. By the time of his death in 1916, he was one of the most well-known, most decorated, and much admired artists in the country.

While William Merritt Chase was the most successful of Jacob Cox’s formal students, one of his informal students also achieved world-wide fame—though not necessarily for his paintings. About 1840, young Lew Wallace watched as Jacob Cox painted a portrait of Governor David Wallace. In his autobiography, Lew Wallace, told a story about his early aspirations to become an artist. He found his father posing one day in Jacob Cox's studio. "When I heard that Mr. Cox painted pictures in oil, I nerved myself and boldly invaded his studio. He was painting my father's portrait when I went in. The coincidence excused me. We became good friends, and not a few of my truancies were spent watching him at work."

David Wallace as painted by Jacob Cox, ca. 1840

According to his recollections, Lew was allowed to help mix the pigments used for the portrait. At that time, paints came in hard cakes and artists had to carefully grind the colors on a marble slab before mixing them with oil. Lew volunteered to do this for Mr. Cox. After a time Lew gave in to temptation. While he admitted that Mr. Cox would probably have given him the paint, he was hesitant to voice his passion. Instead he loaded a tin plate with “dabs of paints, hastened home, and with the coveted plunder, stole up into the garret as the safest place from intrusion.” Realizing he needed further equipment, he pulled hairs from the tail of a dog and tied them on a stick to make a brush, used the bottom of a wooden box as his canvas and appropriated castor oil from the sickroom supplies as his mixing fluid. His subject was Chief Black Hawk.

When he was finally located intently involved in his new activity, Lew said he had never heard his father laugh so long and heartily as when his art equipment was produced. Nevertheless, his father discouraged the interest in art. “You must give up drawing. I will not have it. If you are thinking of being an artist, listen to me…to give yourself up to [that] pursuit means starvation.” Lew continued for a time to pursue his artistic talents, but because of the lack of support at home and the comments made by school mates he let his interest in painting drift slowly away. As he later said:

“to give up the dream. Still it haunts me. At this day even, I cannot look at a great picture without envying its creator the delight he must have had the while it was in evolution.”

The Conspirators one of Lew Wallace's paintings that was highly regarded during his lifetime

However, the dream never completely died. In the 1860s, he again began creating artwork. For much of the rest of his life, when time permitted, he sketched, painted in oil, and in watercolor but, perhaps because his father had so discouraged his interest in the profession, Wallace seldom signed his work. Even though his painting ability was known during his lifetime and some of his works were very well received when they were on public display, other careers and accomplishments in his full life overshadowed Lew Wallace’s artistic creations and the early lessons he learned from Jacob Cox.

The General Lew Wallace Study & Museum celebrates and renews belief in the power of the individual spirit to affect American history and culture.

Bust of David Wallace

The large statue of Lew Wallace on the site of the Ben-Hur beech is not the only piece of free-standing sculpture on the grounds of the General Lew Wallace Study & Museum. Visitors who walk down into the swale behind the Study find themselves face to face with an image of Lew’s father, David Wallace, who served as the 6th governor of the State of Indiana from 1837 through 1840.



Bust of David Wallace from English's Hotel in Indianapolis

 This limestone likeness of David is one of the 31 images of Indiana governors and members of the English family that once adorned one of Indianapolis’ downtown landmarks, English’s Hotel and Opera House. In the 19th century, the English family was one of the most prestigious in Indiana. William Hayden English was born in Lexington, Indiana in 1822 to a family with Kentucky roots. William attended Hanover College but did not graduate. Instead he followed his father’s lead and developed interests in politics and the law. His father, Elisha G. English, served in the Indiana House for almost 20 years. By the age of 19, William H. English was certified as both a teacher and a lawyer. By the age of 23 he was licensed to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court.

William English and his father were both members of the Democratic Party and were not opposed to slavery. By the early 1840s, William had come under the influence of Jesse Bright, a powerful Hoosier politician who secured local appointments and positions for young English. Bright was also a slave owner. In the mid-1840s, English was living in Washington, D.C. and working as Clerk of the Second Auditor for the Treasury Department. There he met and married Emma Jackson, a Southern belle from Virginia.

Throughout the 1840s, English continued to live and work in Washington, D.C. He forged powerful alliances; secured the friendship of important political leaders; and through diligence, hard work, and shrewdness proved his abilities. In 1851, English was elected to the Indiana House from Scott County, serving as Speaker of the House in 1852. During this time he grew more and more influential among the pro-slavery Democrats of Indiana and the nation and in the fall of 1852 he was elected to Congress.

As a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, English worked closely with the Buchanan administration in the late 1850s and in 1858, he helped secure passage of the pro-slavery Lecompton Constitution of Kansas. While serving in Washington, English also served as a Regent for the Smithsonian Institution from 1853 through 1861. When his term in Congress ended in 1861, English moved to Indianapolis and began a business, banking and legal career that led to a great family fortune.

During the Civil War he served as an advisor to Governor Morton even though the two were political opponents and he aided in the raising of troops for the Union cause. He was chosen as vice-president on the Democratic ticket that nominated General Winfield Scott Hancock for president in 1880. Hancock and English were only narrowly defeated in the election. English also authored several well received books during his time in Indianapolis including an exhaustive history of the State of Indiana. He died in his rooms in English’s Hotel in 1896 after an illness of about six weeks.

Perhaps the most visible example of the fortune W.H. English amassed was the English’s Hotel on Monument Circle that was built in three phases. The first phase of this grand Victorian edifice included an elaborate Opera House that was completed in 1880 with an entrance facing Circle Park. The architect of the original building was J. Morgan McElfatrick of J.M. McElfatrick & Sons who were theater design specialists from New York City. In 1884, the building was extended east all the way to Meridian Street. In 1897, William H. English’s son, William E. English expanded the building to fill the entire northwest quadrant of Monument Circle. The architect for this project was Oscar D. Bohlen of D.A. Bohlen & Son. The building remained an Indianapolis landmark for another five decades until it was demolished in 1948-1949.

English's Hotel and Opera House, ca. 1900

The bust of David Wallace that is now located in the swale behind the Study was carved for the 1897 expansion of the English’s Hotel and Opera House. The busts of the governors and English family members were located in a decorative band that ran between the second and third floors of the stately hotel. Research by Ratio Architects of Indianapolis for a Historic Structures Report they have completed on the Lew Wallace Study & Museum indicates that the bust of David Wallace was the second one north of Market Street on the Monument Circle façade.

When the hotel was demolished, many of the busts were salvaged and sold to various collectors and groups. The bust of David Wallace was acquired for the grounds of the Study by Crawfordsville’s Dorothy Q chapter of the DAR. A brick and stone structure was built to hold the David Wallace bust and the sculpture was dedicated in a ceremony on the Study grounds in 1963 when Donnis Widener was serving as Chapter Regent.

This sculpture in the swale provides visual interest for the grounds, assures that the contributions of David Wallace are remembered, and allows our tour guides to say on a regular basis: “No that’s not where Lew Wallace’s father is buried.”

Sources: Historic Structures Report, Ratio Architects, 2012
History of the Dorothy Q Chapter, DAR
New York Times, “William H. English is Dead,” February 7, 1896

The General Lew Wallace Study & Museum celebrates and renews belief in the power of the individual spirit to affect American history and culture.



Family Politics

What was Lew Wallace's political affiliation? Looking to his Autobiography, Wallace grew up "intensely Whig" with a father associated with the Whig party during his time as governor and state legislator. Wallace carried on these political views until the personally crucial election of 1848 which found General Zachary Taylor, among others, nominated on the Whig ticket. General Taylor had soundly criticized Wallace and his regiment during the Mexican War, and the wounds still stung Wallace as he decided how to cast his vote. In addition to the personal slight, Wallace believed, "Taylor would be a slave-holder's president. His election would mean the extension of slavery." (Autobiography, p. 204) Though not an outspoken abolitionist, Wallace did not want to see the extension of slavery throughout states and territories. Acknowledging that he could not single-handedly rout Taylor as a viable presidential candidate, he still resolved to wage a war against Taylor's campaign within the state of Indiana. After the election several months later, "General Taylor became president, but not - and I devoutly thanked God for it - not with the electoral vote of Indiana." (Autobiography, p. 204) His personal campaign against the Whig candidate led to his defection from that party, and seeing no middle ground between Whigs and a third party called the Free-Soilers, he "became a Democrat - one of the straitest of the sect." (Autobiography, p. 205)