OUR NOBLE PRESIDENT by Osborne D. Castleman 1888

OUR NOBLE PRESIDENT

Speech of O.D. Castleman, Delivered in Cold Spring Township, May 26, 1888.

Mr. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN- I rise before you to present to your minds one of the grandest characters in the history of any country. The election of Grover Cleveland as the twenty-second President of the United States marks an era of unusual interest in the history of our country and of peculiar significance in the political succession of parties, which bears within its system the fundamental principles of human liberty. The wonderful survival through twenty-four years of defeat and the final triumph of the party which has elevated Grover Cleveland to the Chief Executive office of the Nation, is a gratifying evidence of the firm convictions and tenacity of purpose which actuate the American citizen in the performance of his duty to that which he believes to be for the best interest of his country; and there can be no better safeguard to the permanency of our institutions than a condition of almost evenly balanced strength between our political parties.

Grover Cleveland was born in the little village of Caldwell, New Jersey, sixteen miles west of New York City and within a few miles of Newark, in the year 1837. In the year 1863, an assistant District Attorney was wanted for Erie County. His traits of character were even at that time so conspicuous that the office appeared to be waiting for him to seek it, and the result was his appointment over many disappointed aspirants. The next office Cleveland held was Sheriff of Eric county;  sworn in 1st January, 1871. For this important office his firmness, courage and strict integrity eminently fitted him, and he filled the office with credit to himself and honor of the country. The next office he held was Mayor of the City of Buffalo, and during his first six months in office he saved the city one million dollars. In all his official life Mr. Cleveland has given evidence of the loftiest statesmanship, measured by the standard, not of political trickery, but of honesty, fidelity, industry and patriotism.

The next office that Cleveland was elected to was Governor of the State of New York. This was one of the most memorable gubernatorial campaigns ever fought in the State of New York, and resulted in Mr. Cleveland's election by a majority of one hundred and ninety-two thousand, the largest ever given to any candidate for Governor in the United States. The inauguration of Governor Cleveland took place on 1st of January, 1883, and he quietly went to work early and late, exercising diligence and dispensing with all formality, to the great end of serving his country best.

We now approach that era in the life of Grover Cleveland when the eyes of the Nation began to be turned toward him as a true exponent of the principles of honest and economical government, and a man whose official acts proved him worthy of higher honors and responsibilities. On the 8th day of July, 1884, the Democratic National Convention met at Chicago with a large and able delegation, and Hon. Richard B. Hubbard of Texas was elected temporary Chairman, and Col. William F. Vilas of Wisconsin was elected permanent Chairman. Cleveland's nomination was unanimous on motion of Mr. Hendricks. Then with waving standards, patriotic music by the band, and song after song and general rejoicing, the Convention adjourned.

During the time that the ballots were being cast that made Grover Cleveland the standard-bearer of his party, he was busily engaged at Albany attending to the duties of his office, and at the sound of the cannon firing the salute General Farmworth exclaimed, "Governor, they are firing a salute over your nomination." "Do you this so?" replied Cleveland; "well anyway, we'll finish up this work."

Cleveland has risen from a poor boy to his present exalted position. He stands today from whence he can look upon Mount Vernon. He stands today from whence he can almost see Monticello, where rest the ashes of the immortal Jefferson, the great author of the Declaration of Independence, breathing the same air of the Alleghaneys, looking through the same azure hue, causing his mind to reflect back upon States and statesmen.

Roland H. Perry, Artist

"Perry was a master of both painting and sculpture, and he began his studies at the Art Students' League in New York City at the age of sixteen. Three years later he traveled to Paris to study with Paul Delance at the Academie Delecluse. He entered the École des Beaux-Arts in 1890 as the only American student admitted that year. Perry remained in Paris for six years, producing both paintings and sculpture.

Returning to the United States, he was commissioned to sculpt bas-reliefs at the Library of Congress. He also created a frieze for the New Amsterdam Theater in New York City. Perry is also credited with two monuments at Gettysburg National Military Park — the statue of Brigadier General George Greene on Culp's Hill, and Brigadier General James Wadsworth on McPherson's Ridge. In all, Perry designed and created over thirty major pieces of art, and he continued to work prolifically until his death on October 27, 1941."

[source:  Pennsylvania Capitol Preservation Committee ]

Commonwealth

Kentucky sends Mrs. John B Castleman, Aged Suffragist

KENTUCKY SENDS AGED SUFFRAGIST

Mrs. John B. Castleman, 79 Years Old, on Democratic Executive Committee.

By a Staff Correspondent of THE SUN AND NEW YORK HERALD.

San Francisco, June 30. - Probably the oldest of the women delegates is Mrs. John B. Castleman of Louisville, Ky. She is the widow of Gen. Castleman, a celebrated figure in his day, and the mother of famous beauties. she is 79 years old, and as a member of the executive committee of the National Democratic Committee was at the rooms where Mrs. Bass presided to-day.

"I'm so glad I could come. I think this is to be the most important convention since the civil war," she said to-day. "Sometimes I'm tempted to say since 1776. We Democrats have so much to do if we are to frame a successful platform that will fulfill the needs of this afterwar period."

Mrs. Castleman ceased talking as a tall, well groomed, beautiful woman approached.

"That is my daughter", she said. The daughter looked a bit worried.

But after her daughter disappeared, enthusiasm overcame Mrs. Castleman.

"No, perhaps I should not talk, but I've been interested for such a long time that it's difficult not to appear interested.

"It seems to me that I was born in politics. I've been in them, as they say, for a long time. I fought for years for suffrage in my Kentucky State. It was one of the hardest fights for that principle in the nation.

"The greatest drawback was the negro women. That was the argument that the anti-suffrage men always used. They didn't want the negro women's vote released and they didn't want the burden of educating the women negro vote, but we won in time."

Besides a long history in public life Mrs. Castleman has a story, one of real Southern romance. The late Castleman, her husband, was a Confederate officer during the civil war. It was Gen. Castleman who, with two other Confederate officers, released Southern prisoners held at Fort Sullivan in Indiana. For this activity Gen. Castleman was banished from the country and later ordered executed by the Northern force.

"It was Lincoln's hand that saved him from death on the scaffold," Mrs. Castleman said. "I have the President's letter at home; I am very proud of it." 

Mrs. John B Castleman, chairman of the delegation representing Kentucky Equal Rights Association

[caption] Left to Right - Mrs. Lafon [Martina Grubbs] Riker, Harrodburg, president of the State Federation of Women's Clubs; Miss Laura Clay, chairman of the delegation opposing ratification of the Susan B. Anthony amendment; Mrs. John B. [Alice Barbee] Castleman, chairman of the delegation representing the Kentucky Equal Rights Association; Mrs. Harrison Gardner [Elizabeth D. Gibson] Foster, member of Miss Clay's delegation; Mrs. Edmund M. [Josephine Fowler] Post, Paducah, member of the executive board of the National Woman's Suffrage Association and member of the delegation urging ratification of the Susan B. Anthony amendment.

Mentally insane Professor Charles Fremont Castleman of Virginia.

When Charles Fremont Castleman was born in 1848 in Frederick, Virginia, his father, Alfred, was 53 and his mother, Margaret, was 40. He married Ambrosia Hazlett on October 16, 1877. They had four children in 14 years. It is probable that he died before 1900. 

From 1866 to 1868 Charles Fremont Castleman, John Randolph Castleman, and cousins John and Henry Castleman are listed as students at "Auburn". They received an English and Classical Education which included French and Latin. 

Auburn School began at the old Wickliffe Academy building in 1865 and later moved to the home of Mr. P.H. Powers, named "Auburn". 

Charles attended the University of Virginia in 1870. 

Charles was a noted scholar in Virginia and was a professor at the Academy at Leesburg, VA for many years.

In 1885, Charles and his family were headed to Tipton, Missouri but were stopped in Decatur, Illinois because Charles' apparently showed signs of insanity.

The following day, after 2 o'clock Charles "got out a revolver and suddenly went out of the large room to where his wife was sleeping, crying out that he would kill her, the children, and himself. He had cocked the revolver and had taken aim when the frightened watcher made a lucky catch at the madman's arm, and in a desperate struggle disarmed him."

"It took a half dozen men to put Castleman under control. He severely injured several of them. The officers put him in jail."

A few days later John Randolph Castleman arrived in Decatur, to take charge of his brother and he took him east, where he was to be confined in an asylum near Baltimore, Maryland.

Ambrosia Hazlett Castleman was officially divorced from her husband Charles Fremont Castleman in 1898. In 1900, on the US Census, she is listed as a widow, but it is unclear if she remarried in 1898.

The children of Charles Fremont Castleman and Ambrosia Hazlett: 

1. Corinne Hazlett Castleman
2. Clara H. Castleman
3. Hortense Beauharnais Castleman
4. Mary Montague Castleman

sources:
1. Education in Clarke County Virginia, Proceedings XXV of the Clarke County Historical Association, Inc. 2003, pages 37-38.
2. Divorce mentioned in the Baltimore Sun, March 29, 1898
3. Attempted Wife-Murder, The Pantagraph (Bloomington, Illinois) - July 3, 1885 Friday, Page 1

Mann R. P. Castleman and the Survivors of the Clarke County Cavalry

Survivors of the Clark County Cavalry circa 1888

Mann R. P. Castleman, "was a member of the organizations known as the Survivors of the Clarke Cavalry and of the J. E. B. Stuart Camp C. V., both of this county." [ quote from Clarke Courier, 1 Nov 1899]

In "A Rebel Cavalrymen" by John Newton Opie, 1899, the dedication in the book reads: "This book is dedicated, with everlasting friendship and abiding affection, to the " Clarke Cavalry," a troop of Virginian horsemen, who served in the Confederate Army from Harper's Ferry to Appomattox. No more gallant, heroic, and chivalrous men than they ever wielded the sabre or rode up to the cannon's mouth. Truly, they were noblemen, trusty friends, unfaltering soldiers, generous enemies, — the true type of the gentleman, the old-time Virginian, and the Southern horseman. Affectionately inscribed by the AUTHOR." Staunton, Va., March 10, 1897.

Medal given to Survivors of The Clarke Cavalry Co. D. 6th VA. C.S.A. 

Excerpt from "A Rebel Cavalrymen": 

CHAPTER LXXI. THE "CLARKE CAVALRY" AT TREVILIAN'S STATION..
...
The narrator of the following facts was a private in Company "D", Sixth Virginia cavalry, known as the ' ' Clarke County Troop, ' ' and, without any pretense to historical accuracy as to dates, the position of our forces, etc., he relies entirely upon his memory, made somewhat indistinct by the lapse of more than thirty years.....His horse escaped, and the following day, when the main fight took place, was ridden by our gallant color-bearer, Mann R. Castleman. The guns, which we thought we had captured, were immediately turned on the fleeing remnant, and, as I lay stretched upon the field, I remember, very distinctly, seeing General Custer and hearing his order given to the artil lerymen to fire. "Much has been written about the inhumanity of soldiers upon the battlefield; and, before I close this sketch, I must record some facts, to the honor and glory of Custer's command. In the first place, one of them kindly and tenderly helped me to drag myself from the open field to the shade of the woods, where I lay all day, just in rear of the enemy's line of battle, and water was brought and given me, repeatedly, during that long day — the nth of June, 1864 — and coffee was also brought me. At nightfall, I was tenderly carried in a blanket by four of Custer's soldiers, and laid alongside two other wounded comrades; one, Lieut. Nat. Willis, wounded through the lungs, like myself, and another, whose name I cannot now recall, shot through the abdomen, who died that night in great agony. We were also given blankets to keep us warm. 

Obituary of Mann R. P. Castleman

Mann R. P. Castleman Obituary: 
A dispatch was received here on Sunday announcing the death at the hospital in Staunton of Mr. M. R. P. Castleman, of this county, which occurred early that morning from apoplexy, aged about 65 years. Mr. Castleman went to the hospital at that place for treatment several months ago and was improving quite satisfactorily when his earthly career was suddenly terminated as above stated.

He was a gallant Confederate soldier, and for a while carried the colors of the Sixth Virginia Cavalry, and no one bore them more heroically. During the war, he was elected a member of the House of Delegates by his comrades in arms. Since the war, he has followed farming and milling for a livelihood. He was a member of the organizations known as the Survivors of the Clarke Cavalry and of the J. E. B. Stuart Camp C. V., both of this county. He is a brother of Mr. John R. Castleman, who was also a gallant Confederate soldier and is a prominent citizen of this county.

The deceased is survived by a widow, two daughters, and two sons.

His body was brought home and interred in Green Hill Cemetery on Tuesday morning.

[source: Clarke Courier, November 1, 1899, page 3]

Mann R P Castleman, Patient Records and Cause of Death from the Western State Hospital Collection. The Western State Hospital began in 1825 as the Western Lunatic Asylum for insane white persons.

Source: Library of Virginia

Western State Hospital Collection

Series IV. Patient Records, 1826-1996

Volume 250

Title: Admission Register (#5205-9458), 1896-1913

No. & (Line): 5863 (11)

Previous Admission #: (blank)

First Name: Mann R P

Last Name: Castleman

Occupation: Farmer

Admission Date: 1899/09/13

Gender: Male

Age: 61

Year of Birth: (Calculated): 1838

Social Relations: Married

Education: Fair

Nativity: Virginia

Residence: Clarke

No. Attacks: 1

Supposed Cause/Form: Business troubles / Acute melancholia

Duration: 3 months

Death or Release: Died

Date of Death: 1899/10/29

Cause of Death: Apoplexy

Remarks: Two brothers were insane

------------------

** According to my own research there is one verifiably insane brother, Charles F Castleman, who attempted to murder his wife and children and was later put into an asylum. The identity of the other insane brother I do not know.