Lew Wallace and Old John

During the Civil War, General John M. Thayer provided a description of Lew Wallace and his favorite horse, Old John.

I shall never forget the splendid picture the man and scene presented. The sun was barely rising of a cold, frosty morning. General Wallace was a princely figure, particularly in the saddle, and he rode a handsome blooded roan stallion, a single-stepper that was the pride of the division. As he came riding up, his military accoutrements flashing the red light of the rising sun, and the charger moving as though to the sound of music, he presented a sight that is not seen more than once in a lifetime.

Lew on Old John

Although Old John was a legendary horse and fondly remembered, there is much that we don’t know about him. It’s believed that Wallace purchased John from the Armantrout Farm. The Armantrouts were a family that settled about five miles south of Crawfordsville. The patriarch of the family, Frederick, served in the Revolutionary War and settled here with his son, Joseph in 1827. Joseph became one of the leading and most progressive farmers in the county. He pursued a number of ventures including the breeding of horses so it’s possible that Lew did acquire John from the Armantrouts, but we don’t know when Wallace bought the horse or how old the horse was.

During the Civil War, Lew relied on John and took great pains to provide for his horse. In his autobiography there are numerous references to John including this:

I loved this horse passionately. For five years he was my faithful, intelligent servant and friend; and in all that time there was never an hour in which I would not have gone hungry and thirsty if, by so doing, it had been possible to have saved him. He was in my mind when, long afterwards, in The Wooing of Malkatoon, I wrote these lines:

 But Othman waved them off: “Bring me my horse.
But yesterday from noon to set of sun
He kept the shadow of the flying hawk
A plaything ‘neath his music-making feet.
I will not comrade else.”
Tent born and bred,
The steed was brought, its hoofs like agate bowls,
Its breast a vast and rounded hemisphere,
With lungs to gulf a north wind at a draught.
Under its forelock, copious and soft
As tresses of a woman loosely combed,
He set a kiss, and in its nostrils breathed
An exhalation, saying, to be heard
By all around, “Antar, now art thou brute
No longer. I have given thee a soul,
Even my own.”
And as he said, it was,
And not miraculously, as the fool
Declares; for midst the other harmonies
By Allah wrought, the hero and his horse
Have always been as one.

Prior to the Battle of Fort Henry in February of 1862, Wallace wrote:

In a mood of royal expectancy, I called the servant who took care of John, my horse, the noblest of his kind. “Groom him now, and feed him well. He will have heavy work to do for me to-morrow.” And I sat till night fell watching that what I ordered was done.

As Wallace remembered his Fort Donelson experiences, John again played a featured role.

The big Heiman tent proved a welcome refuge, and, with my staff, I heaped blessings on the captain of the steamboat. While we were sounding the depths of his basket, I remembered, with a wrench of spirit, that my horse had gone since early morning without a drop of water or a bite of food. I reproached myself bitterly. It had been so easy to have dropped a bag of oats in one of the wagons! A teamster came to my help with a capful of shelled corn. Then, in place of water, the noble brute was given a long tether that he might make the most of the snow. Hard, truly!
 And from pitying the horse my sympathy went out to the men. . .

The morning of the 15th crawled up the eastern sky as a turtle in its first appearance after hibernation crawls up a steep bank. Just before it shook out its first faint signs of life, I went out to look after my horse John. Poor fellow! The blanket I had loaned him helped comfort him; but he had happed up all the snow in the circle of his tether, and that, not to speak of the appeal in his eyes, told me how he suffered for water. I had about made up my mind to take chances and have an orderly lead him back to the first running stream, when an unusual sound off to the right front of position attracted me. I listened. The sound broke at a jump into what was easily recognizable as a burst of musketry. . .

John was brought me, and I rode to Cruft and Thayer. Both were directed to have their men breakfast and stand by their arms. Cruft was told to call in his extra guard details.
 At my tent again, I borrowed a capful of corn for John, and while he was eating, the ever-handy basket surrendered its contents, and we were content to take our coffee out of the bottles cold.

Time and again, Wallace remembered sharing the burdens of war with John in the spring of 1862.

 . . . My horse objected to the dead men still lying in the road; but getting past them, the hill dipped down into a hollow of width and depth. At the left there was field; all else appeared thinly covered with scattered trees. The pickets in the hollow were maintaining a lively fusillade, so I turned into the field. I could then see the road ran off diagonally to the right. A bluff rose in front of me partially denuded, and on top of it Confederate soldiers were visible walking about and blanketed. Off to the left the bluff flattened as it went. In the direction I also saw a flag not the stars and stripes, and guessed that the fort lay in studied contraction under it. I saw, too, a little branch winding through the hollow, and thought of my poor horse, then two days without water. The men keeping the thither height caught sight of my party, and interrupted me in the study of their position. Their bullets fell all around us. One cut a lock of the mane of a horse of one of my orderlies. But I had what we came for, and got away, nobody hurt.

Upon rejoining them at the battery, the old regiments (Eighth and Eleventh) cheered me; whereat the fort opened, firing harmlessly at the sound. The Eleventh, from their stacked arms, crowded around John—“Old Balley,” they called him—and filling a capful of crumbled crackers, some of them fed him what he would eat. They would have given him drink from their canteens had there been a vessel at hand to hold the water.
 In these moves my horse had answered me readily but with his head down—a thing that had not happened before. The other horses of the company were worse off. There was need for me up on the height, but we stopped by the little brook and broke through the ice. While the poor brutes were drinking greedily, Colonel Webster came to me.

Finally, in April as the Battle of Shiloh loomed, Wallace wrote:

My last preparatory order brought John to the Landing. I went ashore to see him. The good horse might have to suffer again; but, fortunately for him as well as myself, the season of snow and boreal winds had passed.
 John, the good horse, had shared the night with me close by my sheltering tree. He was wet through and through, and like myself, more than willing to be in motion.
 “Ah, well the gallant brute I knew!”

Toward the end of the Civil War, there is a story of a horse race between General Wallace on “Old John” and General Ulysses S. Grant on his prize saddle horse “Cincinnatus.” Supposedly Lew was holding John back, and Grant realized it. He told Lew to let him run. “Old John” won the race, and Grant endeavored to buy him on the spot. Without even considering the offer from his superior, Lew replied, “not for love nor money.”

Research has not yet indicated just when John came into Lew’s life, how old he was when Wallace purchased him, and just when John died. We don’t even know when references to the horse went from “John” to “Old John.” Anecdotal stories indicate that John lived to be a very old horse and died around the turn of the twentieth century. This would have made John, very old indeed for a horse as he would have been in the neighborhood of forty years old. Again, according to legend, when John died, Lew had him buried on the grounds of the Study up near the southwest corner of the property. Visitors to the grounds as far back as the late 1920s have related that they were told by Mr. Elliott, the caretaker, that John was buried there.

One of the final references to John was recorded on January 1, 1900 by Miss Ella Kostanzer when she interviewed Wallace. Ella wrote:

I must relate an incident that was interestingly funny to me and which I think you will enjoy. In a high enclosure behind the house was “Old John” the General’s war horse, which carried him all through the Civil War. A creature of great size, power and spirit, he greatly annoyed his master by often breaking through the high fence and leaping over ordinary fences like a deer, getting into the streets and terrorizing the community. As no one but the General or his groom could get anywhere near him, it was very provoking to be compelled to throw pen and paper aside for the difficult task of capturing the old fellow. His conduct was most exasperating to the General.

Through legends and stories, John still continues to be a part of the history of the Study. It’s nice to think that when guests enter the Carriage House for a tour, the gift shop to the left was the stall that once housed the General’s pride and joy, the handsome blooded roan stallion named John.



Sources:


Erin Gobel-Researcher
Montgomery Magazine “General Lew Wallace’s Carriage House,” August 1999
Lew Wallace, Autobiography, 1906
Ella Kostanzer Interview with Lew Wallace, January 1, 1900

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

Lew Wallace and his Autobiography

It took Lew Wallace almost 30 years to write and publish his first novel, The Fair God. He started working on it at about the age of 19 in the 1840s and it was published in 1873 when he was 46. After the success of his first book, it took him approximately seven years to write and publish his second book, Ben-Hur. Other books he completed did not take so long, but he clearly worked with great diligence and care and did not publish his efforts until he was fully satisfied. By the turn of the 20th century, Wallace was focusing his efforts on the writing of his autobiography.


In April of 1901, he travelled to Louisville and hosted a grand dinner. The papers reported that he was in town to gather data for his memoirs. He stayed at the Louisville Hotel and the papers reported that he had already been working on the autobiography for some time. According to the published reports he expected to be done with the book by Christmas of 1901 at which time he would begin writing his first “American” novel.

Wallace related to reporters that his autobiography would cover all the periods of his varied and eventful life with special attention given to his careers as governor of New Mexico and minister to Turkey. The book would also cover the important aspects of his military career and research for that aspect of his life is what took him to Louisville in 1901. As he stated:

“I am here to see some of the distinguished confederates who fought in the great battles of the civil war [sic] and to get their personal experiences. I believe that the best history is that which is not burdened with dull data, but enlivened by personal accounts. I have already seen Gen. Duke, who was a war-time opponent, and Gen. Buckner. I will also see Col. J. Stoddard Johnston. I intend to visit the library of Col. R.T. Durrett.”

As can be imagined, Wallace was particularly interested in securing information from the Confederates on the Battle of Shiloh. On April 26, Wallace hosted his formal dinner for former adversaries in the Louisville Hotel with guests General S.B. Buckner, General Basil W. Duke, Colonel J. Stoddard Johnston, Major D.W. Sanders, Captain John W. Leathers, Logan C. Murray, James S. Barret, and Marmaduke Bowden.

Simon Boliver Buckner

General Simon Boliver Buckner was a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and had seen significant fighting in the Mexican War. Buckner was from Kentucky and when the Civil War broke out he was offered high ranking positions in the Union army before ultimately deciding to serve the Confederacy. In the Civil War, Buckner again saw action, including at Fort Donelson in 1862. Buckner was in charge of Fort Donelson when it was attacked by the Union forces led by his old friend, Ulysses Grant. When defeat at Donelson appeared inevitable, Buckner sent a message to Grant requesting an armistice and a meeting of commissioners to negotiate surrender. Grant famously responded with his words: “No terms except unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted. I propose to move immediately upon your works.” Buckner quickly surrendered the fort. Grant was courteous to Buckner following the surrender and offered to loan him money to see him through his impending imprisonment, but Buckner declined. The surrender was a humiliation for Buckner personally, but also a strategic defeat for the Confederacy, which lost more than 12,000 men and much equipment, as well as control of the Cumberland River, which led to the evacuation of Nashville. Lew Wallace was heavily involved in the battle for Fort Donelson and keenly interested in visiting with Buckner in 1901.

Basil W. Duke was another Confederate officer from Kentucky and happened to be the brother-in-law to John Hunt Morgan. Morgan carried out a series of small guerilla invasions in southern Indiana and Ohio during the war that Duke was party to. Lew Wallace was one of the Union men dispatched to chase Morgan back South. Duke was also involved in the Battle of Shiloh where he was wounded. When Duke died in 1916, historians lauded him saying: “No Southerner was more dedicated to the Confederacy than General Basil W. Duke.”

The other men that Wallace sought to interview, Colonel J. Stoddard Johnston, Major D.W. Sanders, Captain John W. Leathers, Logan Murray, Marmaduke Bowden, and James Barret each had their important stories to share from their Civil War experiences. This dinner was just one of many examples where Lew Wallace sought to build relationships with former adversaries in the years after the Civil War. Efforts such as these by Grant, Lee, Wallace and other Civil War leaders from both sides were vital to mending the sectional divisions created by the war.

As Wallace’s autobiography progressed, it grew larger in scope and it was not finished by Christmas of 1901. In fact, it was not finished by Christmas of 1902, 1903 or even 1904. At the time of Wallace’s death in February of 1905, he was only about half-way through his personal recollections. When he put his pen down for the final time, it’s reported that he was working on his memories of the Battle of Monocacy, which took place in 1864. Wallace approached the work in a largely chronological format, so many of the most important aspects of his life were not yet penned.

Mary Hannah Krout

Throughout her life, Susan Wallace had supported her husband’s creative efforts. The autobiography was no exception. After Lew’s death, Susan and her friend Mary Hannah Krout took it upon themselves to finish the work Lew had started. In a little over a year, Susan and Mary Hannah completed what it had taken Lew many years of painstaking effort to get half done. The two volume work was completed and in 1906 it was published. Just as the autobiography proved to Lew’s last major creative effort, it was also Susan’s last major writing. She died less than a year after its publication.

Although Lew’s prediction that he would be working on his first great “American” novel by the end of 1901 did not come true, in the same interview he also expressed great confidence in Indiana’s literary future. He was much closer to the mark on this prediction as people like James Whitcomb Riley, Meredith Nicholson, Booth Tarkington, George Ade, George McCutcheon, Gene Stratton-Porter, and others flourished during the golden age of Hoosier authors in the early twentieth century.

Sources:


The Crawfordsville, Journal, April 17, 1901
The Crawfordsville, Journal, April 26, 1901

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



Ben-Hur on the London Stage

In March of 1901, it was announced that Klaw and Erlanger, the producers of the Broadway presentation of Ben-Hur, had made arrangements with Arthur Collins, the director of London’s Drury Lane Theater to take the play to England. Collins had travelled to New York to stage a play, but also to secure the rights to Ben-Hur. Ben Teal and A.L. Erlanger were to superintend the London production. Collins, himself, would oversee the creation of the stage scenery and costumes. Rather than the eight horses generally used for the chariot race, the London production was to boast 16 horses in the great race. The horses and mechanical apparatus for the race were to be sent from America. In January of 1902, Joseph Brooks, who worked for Klaw & Erlanger and had negotiated with Lew Wallace for New York’s original production, sailed for England to supervise the final preparations for the London premier which was set for March 31.


The Drury Lane Theater that premiered Ben-Hur had been built in 1812 on the site of several earlier important theaters. It is still considered one of the most significant theaters in the world. Over the years the Drury Theater has seen its share of historic performances and personnel ranging from Edmund Kean and Lord Byron to Noel Coward to Rodgers & Hammerstein to Monty Python to Shrek the Musical.

Drury Lane Theater

Back in 1901, original plans called for using the Broadway cast for the London staging of Wallace’s play. However, as things turned out, only J.E. Dodson, who portrayed Simonides, travelled overseas. While most of the other cast members, almost 500 of them, were members of British theatre troops, Judah Ben-Hur was portrayed by the popular American actor Robert Taber. Taber had started his career in 1886 portraying Silvius in the play As You Like It with the famed acting company of Helena Modjeska. Taber went on to marry leading Shakespearean actress Julia Marlowe and enjoyed a string of successful stage performances in the 1890s in America. He also enjoyed great success in London at the turn of the 20th century including portraying Macduff in Macbeth at the Lyceum Theater and Orsino in a production of Twelfth Night at Her Majesties Theater.

Constance Collier as Cleopatra

The impressive London cast of Ben-Hur also included Constance Collier as the temptress, Iras, despite the fact that she was also starring as Calypso in Ulysses, another stage epic, at His Majesty's Theatre nearby. She would run between the theatres and slip out of Calypso's flowing robes into Iras's unkempt wig and exotic, dishevelled clothing. Born in Kensington, like her friend Charlie Chaplin, Collier had been a Gaiety Girl before she switched to "legitimate" theatre, specializing in goddesses, queens and romantic heroines.

With Taber in the lead, the play opened on schedule in early April of 1902. Friends of General Wallace who saw him about town in Crawfordsville at the time of the premiere were amused by published reports that he attended the London opening, sitting in the audience with famed actress Mary Anderson. Even the great General Wallace could not be two places at the same time!

The play had received acceptable reviews in America, and many in the English press liked the performances and were overwhelmed by the ingenuity of the production. The Illustrated London News's critic, stated that Robert Taber played the Jewish prince with "rare personal charm" and the whole was "capitally acted," while Collier was coyly described by the Sketch's critic as "very alluring.”

In spite of positive reviews some London critics were not amused and their reviews were scathing. If Wallace, Klaw & Erlanger, and Collins were distressed by these reviews, the thousands and thousands of dollars that came streaming in probably softened the blow. Ben-Hur opened to the largest receipts of any dramatic production for the Drury Lane Theater making over $50,000 in just 20 presentations. As word of mouth spread, attendance increased and the Saturday performances always exceeded $6,000 and its average take in a week was $23,000 making it the greatest financial success the London stage had ever seen. In May 1902, newspapers reported that attendance at the Drury had so hurt other theaters, that certain managers had lost heart and were closing until the excitement surrounding Ben-Hur subsided.

Although some critics continued to take issue with the play, their voices were drowned out by public acclaim. Even King Edward and Queen Alexandra enjoyed the show. They had a specially constructed box in the pit, which was considered a radical departure for royal viewing. According to published reports, their majesties highly commended the drama and its production and spoke of the very reverent manner in which its religious theme was treated.

Robert Taber with
Lena Ashwell

Although he was only in his 30s, Taber’s portrayal of Judah Ben-Hur would be among his last roles. He and Julia Marlowe had divorced by 1900. In 1901 and 1902, he was on the London stage and in 1903 he was involved in a scandalous affair with an English actress named Lena Ashwell. Just a year later he was ill with pleurisy and dying. His former wife, Julia, provided him a home in the Adirondacks in hopes that he would recover his health, but Taber died in 1904 at the age of 39.

At the same time the London production was being readied for its opening in 1902, another staging of the play was preparing for its opening at Her Majesty’s Theater in Sydney, Australia and plans were being discussed for productions in France, Germany, Austria, and Russia. While Wallace’s literary efforts had reached an international audience in the nineteenth century, just after the turn-of-the twentieth century, the stage play was proving equally successful at spreading the message of Ben-Hur and the name of Lew Wallace. The impressive production of the play contributed to this success, but beyond its theatrical presentation, as the critic for Sketches wrote of the London production, this play had the unique ability to move audiences, especially by its "beautiful finale, breathing peace to those who have suffered."



Sources:
Samantha Ellis, The Guardian, 2003
The Crawfordsville Journal, March 12, 1901
The Crawfordsville Journal, April 15, 1901
The Crawfordsville Journal, January 24, 1902
The Crawfordsville Journal, May 14, 1902
The Crawfordsville Journal, May 21, 1902




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

Wallace and the Donkey

In 1877, the Republicans won the controversial presidential election between the Republican Rutherford B. Hayes of Ohio and the Democratic nominee, Samuel Tilden of New York. With his party in power General Lew Wallace anticipated a reward for his support. The first offer that came to him in 1878 from President Hayes was the diplomatic position of minister resident and consul general to Bolivia—a position that today would be called an ambassadorship. After some consideration, Wallace declined the position saying that it was too far away from his family and offered inadequate compensation.


Within weeks, Wallace received the offer of an appointment as governor of the New Mexico Territory. For a variety of reasons, Wallace accepted this appointment. Wallace’s time in New Mexico was eventful and added much to his personal story. To share some of his New Mexican experiences, Wallace sent a shipment of souvenirs and curiosities back home to his friends and family. These tokens included boxes of minerals, furs, Indian blankets, and beads. Included in this rail shipment was also a small burro that he planned to give to a neighbor’s child as a pet.

When the rail car reached its destination and the receiving clerk was checking the shipment against the manifest, everything looked to be in order except for one item. In going down the list he noted the description “burro.” The agent assumed that someone at the shipping end was sending a chest of drawers—or bureau—and had spelled the word phonetically. As he checked the bill of lading, there was nothing in the rail car that resembled a piece of furniture—just a little, long-eared, donkey that was not on the bill.

Following company procedure, when irregularities were discovered the agent promptly telegraphed back to the shipper that “Car No 27390, Albuquerque, consigned Wallace, arrived minus one bureau, plus one jackass. Please trace and notify.” Although Wallace was not always noted for his brevity in writing, he personally sent the short telegraph response back: “Change places with the jackass.”

Sources: Crawfordsville Review, December 5, 1896
The Sword & the Pen, Ray Boomhower

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.



William Farnum & Ben-Hur

The play Ben-Hur opened on Broadway in 1899. The first male lead was an actor named Edward Morgan and Messala was first portrayed by William S. Hart. Lew Wallace attended the opening night performance at the Broadway Theater and, like the rest of the audience, was pleased with the dramatic presentation of his work. An opening night critic penned: “Mr. Morgan looks well, and has a few stirring moments. Mr. Hart, as Messala, is as crudely violent and incoherent as ever.” This critic, while apparently underwhelmed with the lead performances, had complimentary things to say about other performers and the music.


William S. Hart went on the play Messala for hundreds of performances over many years. In his autobiography he wrote how honored he was when Lew Wallace asked for a meeting where he praised Hart’s interpretation of Messala. In fact, Hart was still performing the role of Messala on stage when he also played Messala in the first filmed version of the story in 1907. Mr. Morgan as Ben-Hur, on the other hand, was soon replaced. Morgan had been an actor of note in the 1890s. He was a handsome man who had some ability on stage, but for reasons unknown he left the production. Although he continued with a limited stage career for more than a decade, the role of Ben-Hur did not do for him what it did for others and Morgan slipped into obscurity.

Morgan was replaced by William Farnum, who, thanks to Ben-Hur, became one of the leading actors of his day and is still widely remembered. He was born on the 4th of July in 1876 in Boston, Massachusetts and came from a family of performers. He was the son of actor G.D. Farnum and singer Adela Le Gros. As stage performers they trained William and his two brothers, Dustin and Marshall, in the family business.

William Farnum as Judah Ben-Hur

Farnum made his stage debut at the age of ten in the play Julius Caesar with famed actor Edwin Booth as the title character. Farnum had a number of small roles in the 1890s, but his casting as Judah Ben-Hur in 1900 made him a star. His highly regarded portrayal of the Jewish prince led to a string of successful performances in other plays including the Broadway adaptation of Lew Wallace’s Prince of India, which had a limited run in 1906.

After his successes on Broadway, Farnum took his good looks and acting flair to the silent screen in 1914. He became one of the most successful of the silent screen stars with more than 50 films and even made the transition to talking pictures in the late 1920s. During the silent film era he became one of the highest paid actors in Hollywood earning $10,000 per week. He was injured in 1924 while filming the movie, The Man Who Fights Alone and this forced him to take smaller and less stressful roles. During the 1920s, he returned to the Broadway stage at different times with well received performances.

When his roles as a leading man became fewer and farther between, he deftly switched to playing a character actor, often in westerns, and continued his career for many years. In 1951, Farnum and Francis X. Bushman (who played Messala in the 1925 Ben-Hur movie epic) had cameo roles together in a movie called Hollywood Story, which had a storyline based on the murder of silent screen director William Desmond Taylor, who had been a friend to both men. Farnum died in Hollywood on June 5, 1953 and his pall bearers included Hollywood luminaries Cecil B. DeMille, Jesse Lasky, Frank Lloyd, Clarence Brown, Leo Carillo and Charles Coburn with a eulogy by Pat O’Brien. Gary Cooper, William Boyd (Hop-A-Long Cassidy), Noah Beery, Randolph Scott, and John Wayne were all directly influenced (and in some cases coached) by Farnum. While most of us remember Charlton Heston’s impressive performance, actors such as Francis X. Bushman, Ramon Navarro, William S. Hart, and William Farnum also became Hollywood legends because Lew Wallace gave life to Ben-Hur.


P.S. William Farnum was not the only child of G.D. Farnum and Adela Le Gros to make good in Hollywood. His brother, Marshall, became a highly regarded actor and director until his death in 1917. The third brother, Dustin, developed a Vaudeville act and became a leading man on Broadway. Like William, he followed his Broadway successes by becoming one of the leading actors of the silent film era. Perhaps, his most famous role was in the 1914 movie, The Squaw Man by Cecil B. DeMille. For his role in the movie, he was paid with cash and stock in the company formed to film The Squaw Man. He thought so little of this company that he gave the stock to his valet who became an overnight millionaire when the movie was released and became a huge hit. Farnum retired from acting about 1926 and died in 1929 from kidney failure. Beyond his acting career he is also remembered by movie trivia experts because in 1937 Lillian Hoffman of Los Angeles, named her son after her favorite movie actor, Dustin Farnum.



Sources:
Internet Movie Data Base
FilesofJerryBlake.netfirms.com
Internet Broadway Data Base

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

Dan Macauley

Lew Wallace was not the only famous member of the 11th Indiana Volunteers during the Civil War. The visage of Colonel Dan Macauley, another famous man in the 11th Indiana graced the cover of the sheet music for the “The 11th Indiana Quickstep” a toe-tapping song composed for the piano by Hubert J. Schonacker in 1863.


Dan Macauley was born in New York City on September 8, 1839. His parents were Irish and when Dan was seven years old, the family moved to Buffalo, New York where his father died of cholera in August of 1849. Although he spent a little time acting on the stage, after the death of his father, he was apprenticed to a book-binding business where he stayed until about 1860. At that time he moved to Indianapolis to work for Mr. Bingham and Mr. Doughty at the Sentinel book-binding company.

When the war broke out in 1861, Macauley joined the Indianapolis Zouaves as a private but was soon elected first lieutenant. His unit was assigned to the 11th Indiana volunteers under the command of Colonel Lew Wallace. Wallace personally asked Macauley to serve as his adjutant (assistant). Promotions followed and within a year Macauley was a major, by September of 1862 he was a lieutenant-colonel, by March 1863 he was a colonel and during the war was made a brevetted a brigadier general. He was made Brevet Brigadier General by General Phillip Sheridan for gallantry on the field, having been specifically recommended for the promotion by General Grant.

Macauley saw significant action throughout the war including fighting along side Wallace at Romney, Fort Heiman, Fort Henry, Fort Donelson, and Shiloh. He fought at Corinth, was wounded during the Vicksburg campaign, and wounded again during a battle in the Shenandoah. Macauley lived for the rest of his life with a bullet in his hip from this second wounding. By April of 1865 he commanded the defenses of Baltimore. After almost five years of continuous service, in August of 1865 he returned to Indiana with his regiment and was mustered out of the army.

Macauley married on March 26, 1863, and after the war he and his wife returned to Indianapolis where he again entered the book-binding business and they raised their family. In April of 1867, he was nominated by the Republicans for Mayor of Indianapolis. He won the election and served for six years from 1867 to 1873 as the youngest Mayor of Indianapolis up to that time. His Irish ancestry together with his Civil War record made him an appealing cross-over choice. In 1867, thirty-one percent of Indianapolis’ foreign population was Irish but most of the Irish were Democrats. Macauley contributed much to his adopted hometown including being one of the developers of the Woodruff Place suburb.

Dan Macauley had a varied career. After serving as mayor, he served as superintendant of the Indianapolis water works and as manager of the Academy of Music. In 1880, he left Indianapolis and in 1882 was engaged in developing Mexican mining interests, followed by stints managing hotels in New York City and Columbus, Ohio. During Benjamin Harrison’s administration he held the position of appointment clerk for the Treasury Department. In his last job he worked for the Nicaragua Canal Company that ran steamers on Lake Nicaragua. While on business for the company he died unexpectedly in Nicaragua in 1894 and was buried there with full military honors. Macauley’s family later brought his body home and he was buried with honors in Arlington National Cemetery. As Dan Macauley was laid to rest, one of the memorials stated: “The Eleventh Indiana Infantry was distinguished as one of the fighting and best drilled regiments, and from the date of its muster in until it finished its splendid career it never suffered defeat. When it is considered that such men as Gen. Lew Wallace and Dan Macauley were the directing influences that inspired this gallant command one has to look but little further to discover the reason for the success of the Eleventh Indiana.”

The revolver used by Macauley during the war as he fought beside Lew Wallace is part of the permanent collection of the General Lew Wallace Study & Museum and on display in the 2012 exhibit, Courage & Conflict: Lew Wallace in 1862.

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