Governor Rutherford Birchard Hayes

RUTHERFORD B. HAYES, the twenty-ninth and thirty-second governor of Ohio and the nineteenth president of the United States, was born in Delaware, Ohio on October 4, 1822. His education was attained at Methodist Academy, Webb Preparatory School in Connecticut, at Kenyon College, where he graduated in 1842, and at Harvard University, where he earned a law degree in 1845. He then established his legal career in Fremont, Ohio. During the Civil War, he served as major of the 23 rd Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry. He fought in several battles, and was promoted to the rank of major general. Hayes first entered politics as the city solicitor of Cincinnati, a position he won election to in 1857. He also served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1865 to 1867. Hayes next secured the Republican gubernatorial nomination, and was elected governor in the 1868 general election. He was reelected to a second term in 1875. During his tenure, the Agricultural and Mechanical College was established; the state deficit was reduced; the soldiers and sailors’; orphan home in Xenia was founded; and the state board of charities was improved. Having been elected to the U.S. presidency, Hayes resigned from the governorship on March 2, 1877. He then served as the nineteenth president of the United States, a position he held until March 3, 1881. President Rutherford B. Hayes passed away on January 17, 1893, and was buried in the Spiegel Grove State Park in Fremont, Ohio.