It was 2016 and after a long winter of standing on my dresser with two broken legs, it was time once again to face surgery. From the icy grip of Old Man Winter until May, my photographer had grappled with indecision of what to repair my legs with. Finally he chose ‘plumber’s putty’, which I had immediately questioned because I had two broken legs and not plumber’s crack. Tom applied the putty to both legs, smoothed it out and when it was dry he sanded the area and re-painted my legs. I actually got to go with him to Hobby Lobby so that he could match the exact color of my stockings. I felt like a million dollars and I was ready to take on the world; well, at least take on our next Presidential trip.
My photographer had only one Presidential journey planned for 2016, but that lone adventure was slated to be the most ambitious tour since I arrived in 2013. We would be on the road for two weeks and travel through 12 states; half of which were located west of the Mississippi River.
At 4:00am on Friday July 22, 2016 my photographer, his wife Vicki and I were in our Black Dodge Avenger, and we were headed towards St. Louis, Missouri. I had to laugh to myself because as soon as we were on the road, my photographer played the song “Holiday Road” from the movie ‘Vacation’. I had hoped that by him playing Lindsey Buckingham’s song we wouldn’t get lost in St. Louis.
Our first unplanned event happened right around 11:00am when we were just over 500 miles into the journey. Vicki had noticed a sign along I-70 that read ‘Vandalia State Capitol Lincoln Historic Site’; my cameraman immediately said: “I’m not sure what that Lincoln site is, but since it’s only a mile off the beaten path; let’s go and find out.”
We parked just around the corner from the Vandalia State House and I was carried in my camera case to the historic building. It turned out that it was Illinois’ fourth State Capitol building and was the oldest to survive. Not only did Abraham Lincoln work there as a member of the General Assembly in the House of Representatives beginning in 1836, he also spearheaded the move to relocate the state’s capital from Vandalia to his hometown of Springfield in 1839.
After our tour of the State House had concluded, not to mention after my companions had grabbed a quick lunch, it was 12:45pm and we were back on the road to St. Louis – which was still over 70 miles away. As Tom drove over the Mississippi River into St. Louis, I was waiting for Vicki to say: “Clark, I think this is the wrong exit”; and for my photographer to answer: “What’s the difference as long as we get across the river.”
Luckily for us we didn’t have to negotiate with “The Commodores” as our GPS guided us directly to our Presidential site that was located ten miles southwest of downtown St. Louis in the suburb of Grantwood Village, Missouri. It was 2:15pm, we were 600 miles from home, and I was about to visit White Haven – the home of Julia Grant’s parents and where she and Ulysses S. Grant had lived from 1854 to 1859.
The future 18th President helped work at his in-laws farm; but since he was from Ohio, Grant felt very uncomfortable living at White Haven as Colonel Frederick Dent was a slave owner. As a matter of fact, when Julia and Ulysses were married in St. Louis on August 22, 1848, Jesse Grant (Ulysses’ father) refused to attend the ceremony because Colonel Dent owned slaves.
I was carried all through White Haven as we followed our tour guide Shawn Williams; a NPS ranger who my photographer thought looked like former Detroit Tigers’ third baseman George Kell. It was disappointing that none of the furniture belonged to the Dent’s or were there when Grant lived in the house, but none of us were surprised. What did surprise me, however, was the fact that Ulysses S. Grant once owned a slave by the name of William Jones. We knew that Grant did not enjoy living in White Haven because of the enslaved people who were there, but if he hated slavery so much, why would William Jones be owned by the future President? Before Julia and Ulysses S. Grant left the St. Louis area for good and moved to Galena, Grant went to a St. Louis courthouse and gave Jones his freedom on March 29, 1859; over two years before the Civil War started. On that day, William Jones became the last person ever owned by a U.S. President.
When we finished our tour of White Haven, it was time to visit Grant’s cabin called Hardscrabble; located on the Grant’s Farm property owned by Anheuser-Busch. After Julia Dent married Ulysses S. Grant in the Dent’s downtown St. Louis home on August 22, 1848, Julia’s father gave the newlywed couple 80 acres of land near White Haven. On that land, Grant built a log cabin for he and his wife to live in; a place that Julia said, “looked so unattractive that we facetiously decided to call it Hardscrabble”.
The homely cabin had been moved a few times since the 1850’s. I had hoped to see Hardscrabble up-close and maybe tour the interior, but when my photographer discovered that there was a $15 fee to enter the property and that we wouldn’t be able to get close to the cabin, we went to ‘Plan B’. While at White Haven, we were told that Hardscrabble could be seen from the main highway that ran adjacent to the Busch property and that’s where we headed for our photoshoot.
Although the Anheuser-Busch property had a large fence that surrounded its property, it was easy for me to pose with Hardscrabble – even though I was quite a distance from the place. As I stood in front of the two-story cabin, I thought about Grant as he notched out the logs for the building in the fall of 1855. Hardscrabble was the first home the couple ever owned. But because the place was so homely and crude for the socialite Julia, the Grant’s lived there for only three months before they moved back to White Haven, and it never again served as their permanent home. Since our position outside of the fence was along the very busy Gravois Road, there were several times that drivers honked their horn at us or shouted comments our way. I was very pleased that the area drivers had recognized me and were saluting my visit.
Our final stop in Grantwood Village was at St. Paul’s Cemetery that was located about two miles from the Anheuser-Busch property. No, that cemetery was not where Ulysses or Julia Grant were buried. It was, however, where Hardscrabble was originally built and there was a marker in the cemetery that designated the cabin’s original location.
Once Vicki parked the Avenger on a side street near St. Paul’s Cemetery, she stayed in the car while my photographer carried me on a quarter-mile hike to the Hardscrabble marker. I was worried about my cameraman during the walk as it was very hot, and the ground was uneven; had he fallen I likely would’ve been crushed to death or buried alive in the soft ground. Once we arrived at the three-foot tall granite marker that was situated between two small shrubs, I was carefully placed onto the weathered, angled slab for the photos.
As I carefully stood on the angled granite slab for my photos, a flying bug landed on my face and nearly made me slip and fall down the front of the marker. Not only did the insect’s legs tickle my nose, but I was also worried that it might sting or bite me. I wasn’t sure what effect that a sting would have on resin, but I didn’t want to find out. All I knew is I was being photographed and I was somewhat embarrassed as the insect clung to my face.
It was 3:45pm when I was carried back to the Avenger where Vicki had waited for us. Our unofficial goal was to get as close as possible to Independence, Missouri by day’s end, but Independence was nearly four hours away and it had already been a long day of travel. Tom had figured the halfway point was somewhere near Columbia, Missouri, which was roughly two hours away. For my two travel companions, that time-frame seemed more realistic for us to achieve.
We arrived at the Wingate by Wyndham at a few minutes before 6:00pm. Even though there was a lot of daylight left, my photographer and his wife grabbed some fast food and brought it back to the motel. I was placed alongside of the television while they ate dinner and by 7:30pm the two of them had called it a night. All throughout any given night, I usually think about Presidential sites. But on that particular night, all I could think about was the bug that crawled around on my face in the cemetery.
**********
Tom’s alarm clock went off early on Saturday July 23, 2016. Since our proximity to Missouri’s State Capital, Jefferson City, was only 30 miles down the road, my photographer had decided to take me there before his wife could crawl out of bed.
The two of us left the motel at around 6:00am and we headed due south. Our goal was to visit the Capitol building and be back to rendezvous with Vicki by 7:30am; providing she was ready by then. I was excited to visit the capital as the city was named after Thomas Jefferson; and was one of only four state capitals named after a President. The other three were Lincoln, Nebraska; Madison, Wisconsin; and Jackson, Mississippi.
We pulled up alongside the Capitol at roughly 6:40am and I was carried to the south side of the building where we found a statue of Thomas Jefferson. Unfortunately, the building was under renovation and the steps to the south portico were closed. I had no chance to get very close to the Jefferson statue. At that time of morning, the sun angle wasn’t great either, but my photographer did the best he could. Once we walked around to the north side of the building, however, the lighting was perfect and that’s where we discovered the Fountain of the Centaurs. Take a look at my photographer’s images from the State Capitol Building in Jefferson City, Missouri.
My photographer hustled all around the Capitol’s exterior as we circumnavigated the building in about 25 minutes. It was easy for my cameraman to capture images without others in the frame as there was no one else around at that time of morning. It was quiet and serene; I was somewhat saddened that we had to leave the city named after me!
We made it back safely to the motel by 7:40am and Vicki was dressed and waiting for us. My photographer had called her just before we left the Capitol and Vicki said that she was out of the shower and getting dressed; but for some reason Tom and I didn’t totally believe her. We thought that the phone call might have woken her from a sound sleep. We were, after all, in the ‘Show-Me State’ and she sure in the heck-fire showed us – at least that one time!
