August 28: Birthday of Lucy Ware Webb Hayes (1831)
Prayer Idea
Pray for people who are quietly living out their convictions.
History Note
Lucy Ware Webb was born on August 28, 1831, in Chillicothe, Ohio, to Dr. James and Maria Webb. Her father died of cholera while treating sick relatives when Lucy was not quite two. Lucy received a quality education and eventually graduated from Cincinnati Wesleyan Female College.
In 1852 Lucy married Rutherford B. Hayes, a lawyer, at her family home. They had seven sons and one daughter born over the next 21 years.
When the Civil War began, Lucy encouraged her husband to join the Union Army. He served with distinction and rose to the rank of general. Lucy visited her husband and provided nursing care for him after he was wounded in battle. She also sewed for, cooked for, and encouraged other soldiers. The soldiers called her “Mother of the Regiment.”
Rutherford B. Hayes served in the U.S. House and then as governor of Ohio. After he won the presidential election of 1876, Lucy became the first First Lady with a higher education degree.
Lucy Hayes had strong convictions about important issues, but she generally chose to live them out quietly. For example, she supported an effort to help a members of the Paiute Nation leave forced detention, personally provided aid to poor families in Washington, D.C., supplied flowers to a children’s hospital, and visited disabled veterans of the Civil War. Lucy also supported her husband’s decision not to serve alcohol at the White House. Though she had long been committed to temperance herself, she did not publicly advocate for her position.
After leaving the White House, Lucy became president of the Women’s Home Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church. In her 1884 address to the annual meeting, she talked about how Christians in America had an opportunity to serve their neighbors of all ethnicities. She said:
We believe that the character of a people depends mainly on its homes. Our special aim therefore is to improve home environments, home education, home industries, and home influences.
Lucy Webb died on June 25, 1889, at age 57.
Lucy Webb at Age 16 (1847)
Image courtesy the Library of Congress.
Learn More
Watch this quick introduction to Lucy Webb Hayes with images and photographs.
Find more resources at Homeschool History.
