A tribute to John B. Castleman by William R. Goodwin, on November 8, 1913

November 8, 1913

William R. Goodwin, a member of the American Saddle Horse Breeders' Association, and editor of the Breeder's Gazette came from Chicago to attend the unveiling.

John Breckinridge Castleman on his horse Carolina

WILLIAM R. GOODWIN'S TRIBUTE.
THE CASTLEMAN EQUESTRIAN STATUE. 

Profound indeed is the esteem which led a city and a state to erect a statue of one of its distinguished citizens while he yet dwelt among men. Such supreme honors are wontedly reserved for the dead. Singularly appropriate is this precedent-breaking man. The unselfish, lavish devotion of General John B. Castleman to the interests of his state and country are written on the imperishable tablets of the hearts of his people. Public service has ever been the animating spirit of his career. Never has a man devoted more of his time and talent, unsparingly, intelligently and effectively, to the service of his city and state than General Castleman, and the results of his labors bless the present and future generations. Had he but served his own interests with half the fidelity with which he has served his fellow citizens, he would have been numbered among the financial captains of the South. The bronze statue, on its eternal granite base, commanding the entrance to beautiful Cherokee Park in Louisville, dedicated in the songs of the school children, the concerted sounds of the players on many instruments, the fanfare of military trumpets, the eulogies of state and city officials, and the plaudits of his fellow citizens, proved that John B. Castleman chose to serve the people, not Mammon.

Flowers at the funeral are so prescribed by conventionality that appreciative words while yet in the flesh seems fairly strange. Small wonder it is that some out of touch with the man and his work marveled that so distinguished an honor should be done him while yet he walked the earth. They had but to feel the thrill of the dedication atmosphere to understand it was an outpouring of the appreciation and love of a people loyally and intelligently served. His most familiar appearance in Louisville, either at the head of the Louisville Legion or pursuant of his labors as president of the Board of Park Commissioners, was on the back of a five-gaited horse. The model selected from a competition to which numerous sculptors contributed was designed by R. Hinton Perry of New York and the statue was erected at a cost of $15,000 by popular subscription from city, state and other commonwealths to General Castleman "as a man, a citizen, a soldier and a true friend." It may be seriously doubted if ere a more life-like presentation of man and horse in bronze has ever been achieved. With infinite pains the artist labored with his equine model, and the sculptor's art has finally been able to ask of horsemen unqualified approval of a bronze presentment of the noblest of man's animate aids. The statue breathes the form, pose and life of man and mare.

General Castleman is known to the live stock world as the foremost advocate of the most beautiful creation of the breeder's art — the American saddle horse. For nearly a quarter of a century as president he has guided the destinies of the American Saddle Horse Breeders' Association, inviting and compelling the attention of the lovers of the pleasure horse to the matchless beauty, finish and service of the saddle horse as developed under the auspices of the association, and has lived to see the complete triumph of the type in America, measured by the prominence, intelligence and wealth of its patrons. Of his civic and military services this journal does not treat, but promising as the fundamental fact of his life, the animating motive of his actions, his high sense of public duty, it can only be said that the Honorable Edward J. McDermott, lieutenant-governor of Kentucky, sketched with altogether adequate eloquence the career of Gen. Castleman with which the people of his state have been familiar since he entered the Confederate service as a mere youth and returned home from the Spanish War with a general's commission, to receive this unprecedented honor from his people in the seventy- second year of his age. His services to the state in times of riot and profound political disturbance, when his diplomacy and decision wrought for peace and tranquility, were fittingly set forth, as were also his courage and his courtliness "A gentleman of the old school," all delighted to term him — rare example in these latter days which possess not the environment which makes for their development.

(source: 'Active Service', John B. Castleman)

The John Breckinridge Castleman Statue, Louisville Times, November 7, 1913

(From the Louisville Times, November 7, 1913.) 

THE CASTLEMAN STATUE. 

Life is very short. Must we then wait until the next generation discerns the proper judgments and rewards? Must all recognitions be tardy? Surely not, and it is the happy realization of that truth that prompted the graceful tribute, which, on Saturday next, is to be paid to General John Breckinridge Castleman.

General Castleman's monument was secure, even though it were never raised — it stood firm in the hearts of his friends and the memories of his fellow- citizens. Fame would still be busy with his name if no visible remembrance existed; but, in bestowing upon him honor and recognition while yet in full enjoyment of a vigorous and useful life, a noble impulse has received its legitimate fulfillment. It has been said that the love of a few faithful ones, the personal devotion of those who know you best, is all that any man deserves; we cannot accept so narrow a view, and we could never understand why those who are censorious and critical throughout all the changing vicissitudes of a man's career should be so generous with flowers when his heart is still and his eyes closed forever.

It is not a little thing that this gallant soldier, this urbane, courtly gentleman, has done for a city and a state that delights to distinguish those who distinguish them; hi these later days we cannot disassociate him from those wonderfully beautiful parks that are his pride and in great measure his 'creation, and, when the history of the nation was being written in the lifeblood of its best and bravest, where shall we find pages more inspiring than those that tell the deeds of this lateborn cavalier, this knight sans peur et sans reproche?

The secret of a man's charm is an elusive and indefinable as the secret of a writer's style; the hold he has on us, the place he fills, the loyalty he arouses — how explain them? General Castleman is a man of the world, the big world; there are few experiences that are foreign to him, no activities in which he takes no interest, no traditions of breeding, of manner, of gallant bearing that do not center in him. It is inconceivable that such a man should sit in the shadow. He could not be commonplace if he would. His character has been touched with bold, broad touches, generously, lavishly even, and he brings with him the sense of a spacious outlook. Geniality is of his essence; children know that he is not un fathomable, and it is peculiarly fitting that the school children for whose welfare he has been so solicitous, so intelligently providing, should join in the exercises of the day. It was a pleasant thought pleasantly carried out. There at the entrance to the park whose beauty is so much his work, will stand, appropriately, an equestrian statue, attracting and arresting attention by the sweep of its lines, the vigor of its pose, the evidence of its truth. For felicity of situation as of design it stands alone among our memorials; it has succeeded in catching something of the irresistible verve of its delightful model — more cannot be asked of any artist; it denies forever and to all men that "the days of our youth are the days of our glory." To have caught this veteran of two wars young and eager has been the happy idea of Mr. Charles F. Grainger; to him and to Mr. Marion Taylor, his industrious colleague, the community owes a debt of very real gratitude.