Rutherford B. Hayes marries Lucy Webb
On this day in 1852 Rutherford B.Hayes marries Lucy Webb a gregarious devout Methodist from his home state of Ohio.She was 24 and he was 33.According to the National First Ladies Library Lucy met Rutherford when she was only 14 but the two did not start courting until she was in college.
In 1850 she graduated with honors from Wesleyan Female College in Cincinnati Ohio and delivered a speech at her commencement entitled The Influence of Christianity on National Prosperity.After an engagement of a year and a half the two were married in her mothers home in Chillicothe Ohio.The couple had eight children though two of their sons died in early childhood.During the Civil War while her husband served in Ohios 23rd Infantry regimentat 40 he was considered to be an old man by the younger soldiersLucy volunteered to help out in hospitals where she saw first-hand the horrors of war.
Rutherfords fellow soldiers called her the Mother of the Regiment for her kindness and nurturing care.Her Civil War work inspired her future activism for reforms in mental health orphanages and homelessness.Lucy was also an effective campaigner in Hayes successful bid for the White House in 1876.The very popular Lucy Hayes was the first wife of a president to be referred to as first ladya title that grew out of her husbands reference to her as the first lady of the land.
Lucy was an abolitionist and supported in theory at least the early womens suffrage movement.She was often criticized for not taking a more active role in promoting womens suffrage and while she and Rutherford were both believers in the temperance movement it was her husbands ideanot hers as legend has itto forbid serving alcohol in the White House.Lucy allowed White House servants to take time off to pursue their education and commissioned paintings of the presidents who had not yet had portraits hung in the White House.
She also had a portrait of Martha Washington created to hang next to George Washingtons.After Hayes retired from politics (he served only one term from 1877 to 1881) he and Lucy moved back to their home in Spiegel Grove Ohio.She died from a stroke in 1889 five years before the death of her husband.
