Little Known First Ladies: Lucy Hayes Quiz

Answer: Yes

Lucy was about two years old when her great aunt died and left her father James, a physician, about a dozen slaves. The Kentucky Webbs were large slaveholders and her father wanted nothing to do with slavery. He went to Kentucky to free the slaves he inherited but his family was suffering from cholera and he caught it himself and soon died. Lucy's mother Maria then inherited the slaves and freed them immediately. James' family tried to get Maria to sell the slaves but she allegedly told them that she would rather beg on the streets than sell a slave.

It was from this time in her young life that shaped Lucy's push for civil rights when her husband was president.

Answer: A temperance pledge

Isaac Cook was Lucy's maternal grandfather who was something of a militant in the temperance movement. He encouraged Lucy to sign a temperance pledge vowing to never drink or serve alcohol. Lucy signed the pledge and was dedicated to temperance for the rest of her life, although she never became formally active in temperance organizations.

Answer: Cincinnati Wesleyan Female College

Lucy attended a few universities, some of which were male-only (she received special permission to attend). She graduated from the Cincinnati Wesleyan Female College with a liberal arts degree. As a student, she was considered spectacularly brilliant and earned the praise of her professors and peers.

She focused primarily on the influence religion on the social issues of the day. She took strong Christian positions and used them to push for women's rights and the abolition of slavery.

Answer: She was too young

Lucy was only fourteen years old when she met Rutherford who was twenty-three. Their mothers were friends who had hoped they would one day marry each other and were disappointed when their children's initial meeting went nowhere. Rutherford was also intimidated by Lucy's intelligence and worldliness, something that lasted their entire marriage.

Answer: A ring

After first meeting and their relationship never starting, Rutherford and Lucy met up again at a mutual friend's wedding. Rutherford's sister had long been pushing for him to meet up with Lucy again but he always resisted. At the wedding, Rutherford won a prize by finding the ring in the wedding cake.

He gave it to Lucy as a profession of his love and they began courting afterward. After they were married, Lucy gave Rutherford the ring back and he wore it every day of his life. They married in 1852 and had eight children: seven sons and one daughter.

Answer: Fight

Lucy was sometimes militant in her views especially regarding the abolition of slavery and universal suffrage (though her support for women's suffrage is unclear). She often advocated violence as a means to an end. While Rutherford, also an abolitionist, didn't think the issue was worth fighting for, Lucy convinced him otherwise and he enlisted in the Union Army. Lucy herself had wished she could join the frontlines and fight. This was especially true after the surrender at Fort Sumter. Lucy claimed that women would never surrender and in her infrequent writings from the time lamented the struggles of being a woman. Lucy said she had all the answers and the will but was prevented from acting on them because she was a woman.

Instead, Lucy focused her war effort on treating Union soldiers. Lucy used to bring her whole family to the middle of the battlefield to visit her husband and she often treated injured soldiers. She became known to many soldiers as a mother-figure. Future President William McKinley was one of the soldiers Lucy met with and he may have had a brief crush on her. However, her efforts were cut short when two of her children died and she was forced to stay home more often. In addition, she cared for her elderly mother and mother-in-law who both died shortly after the war ended.

Answer: Abraham Lincoln

Lucy admired John C. Fremont, who had lost the presidential election in 1856. The Hayeses supported Lincoln 1860 but Lucy quickly became disillusioned with him when he fired John C. Fremont for insubordination during the Civil War. She also believed Lincoln was not doing enough for former slaves as well slaves in the border states who had not been freed by the Emancipation Proclamation.

After her husband became president in 1877 and ended Reconstruction, Lucy went through similar emotions. She believed the South had not paid dearly enough for the sin of slavery and dividing the nation and asked Rutherford not withdraw troops from the South.

Answer: False

Although she was a militant teetotaller, Lucy served alcohol one time as First Lady. In 1877, Russian Grand Duke Alexis visited Washington and Lucy served him wine. As First Lady of Ohio, Lucy also served alcohol frequently as she believed it was inappropriate to deny a guest a beverage of their choice. Rutherford, who was not a teetotaller, forbade her from serving alcohol ever again as he deemed the Temperance Movement a powerful force he wished not to cross.

Nowadays, Lucy is facetiously called "Lemonade Lucy" (a name she was never called her day) because of her views on temperance. It is a common misconception, however, that she was the one who instituted the policy.

Answer: First to be called First Lady

There are many first attributable to Lucy Hayes. One of these is hosting the first White House Easter Egg Roll. Previously, children would roll the Easter Eggs on the Capitol lawn but when that was banned, Lucy hosted the event on the White House grounds. This is a traditional remains in place today and is still hosted by the First Lady, with the president usually making an appearance as well.

The Hayeses visited the West Coast of the U.S. in 1880 and it was there were Lucy met Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins, a Native American advocate. Lucy was appalled by what the plight of the Native Americans in Nevada and California that she began advocating for them. This was not out of the ordinary for Lucy as she was also a strong advocate for freed slaves, African-Americans, prisoners, the poor and the insane (as the term was then).

Lucy's compassion and advocacy for blacks was something she made very well known. At the time even among Northern abolitionists, there was very little appetite for treating freed slaves and other black Americans equally. Lucy, however, met frequently with black advocates including Frederick Douglass. She invited singer Marie Selika Williams to perform at the White House. Williams was the first black performer to visit the White House.

In addition to these firsts, Lucy Hayes was also the first First Lady to use the telephone, have running water in the White House and keep her own public schedule instead of following her husband's.

Despite popular belief, Lucy was not the first First Lady to be called such. It is believed that Harriet Lane, niece of James Buchanan is the first. However, the term was popularized during Lucy's tenure. At the time, there was a substantial increase in female reporters who were interested in the First Lady. Lucy was a popular subject in newspapers which were also increasing in popularity.

Answer: Greenhouses

Lucy was a lover of nature, especially plants and animals. She had the White House conservatories expanded and replaced several gaming rooms with greenhouses. Most notably, she removed the billiard table which had long caused controversy because of its association with gambling. These greenhouses no longer exist as there were knocked down to build the West Wing.

In addition to these renovations, Lucy advocated strongly for the resumption of building the Washington Monument which was stalled during the Civil War. She also commissioned a very elaborate set of china which made many guests feel uncomfortable eating off of because of how realistic the animals on the pieces were painted.