Lincoln's Boys by Joshua Zeitz

Author:Joshua Zeitz
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Group US
Published: 2014-02-03T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 13

Breadwinners

The house that Amasa Stone built for his daughter and son-in-law on Euclid Avenue was a lasting monument to his family’s wealth. Fashioned out of sandstone, it boasted intricate, hand-carved woodwork made of black walnut, furnishings selected by the same interior designers who had refurbished the White House, “gilding and black dado,” and a rolling front lawn tucked neatly behind a row of tall elm trees and flagstone sidewalks. Incredibly, the mansion served as John and Clara’s primary residence for just a handful of years. Soon after returning to Cleveland in 1881, Hay began suffering from debilitating headaches, nausea, and dizzy spells that would bedevil him for the rest of his life. His friends privately judged him a hypochondriac, but they encouraged his frequent sojourns in Europe, where he ministered to his ailments at clinics and spas then regarded as the most advanced in the world. In 1883, when a large parcel of land on Lafayette Square went onto the market, Hay and Henry Adams decided to buy it and build adjacent homes. John and Clara took the larger, corner plot, at a price of $50,000, while Henry and Clover purchased the smaller plot for $25,000. Over the next two years, both families oversaw the construction of manors that put Euclid Avenue to shame. The Hay mansion ultimately cost $100,000 to construct. At twelve thousand square feet, it featured marble fireplaces in almost every room, an entire floor for servants, a sprawling parlor and library, five bedrooms, three bathrooms with modern plumbing, mahogany woodwork, wainscoting, and a grand stairway “so wide that ten persons could walk abreast without jostling,” according to one newspaper account. It was filled to the brim with ornate furnishings from what Hay sardonically referred to as a “$1,000 store,” as no item could be bought for less. And yet the Hays barely lived there, either, until John’s appointment as secretary of state in 1898. Despondent over the death of her father, Clover Adams committed suicide shortly before the twin houses were complete. Grief-stricken, Henry set out for years of travel, stopping only intermittently to visit his new house. With Clover dead and Henry gone, the entire rationale for living in Washington seemed obviated. The Hays spent only half of each year in Washington and no more than a few weeks in Cleveland. The rest of their months were spent traveling in Europe. Effectively, they had two mansions but no home.

Hay, who was raised solidly middle-class, soon learned by observation that wealth cannot necessarily buy happiness. In December 1876, shortly after John and Clara moved into their house on Euclid Avenue, a railroad bridge over Ohio’s Ashtabula Creek snapped under the weight of a heavy snowfall, causing an engine and several passenger cars to fall into the ravine below. Ninety-two people perished in what was then the worst train accident in American history. Amasa Stone owned controlling interest in the Lake Shore Railway, which had built—and owned—the Ashtabula Creek bridge. In the ensuing months, he and his company withstood blistering attacks in the press for allegedly shoddy engineering work.

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