WEBSTER AND THE LEROY FAMILY

Tucked aside on the second floor of the old Holland Purchase Land Office Museum in Batavia, N. Y., a strange portrait of Daniel Webster was found by the writer a short time ago. The portrait, of which the accompanying photograph is a fair reproduction, is of interest for at least two reasons. One is because it adds to the many now known to Dartmouth men and the other is that it was probably considered by the gentleman who posed for it a good likeness of himself. While the first reason for interest may go unchallenged, the second may not. Therefore, a few words about the probable history of the picture may not be out of place.

As far as the curator of the Batavia museum knows the portrait came into the possession of the museum along with a collection of coins, daguerrotypes, stamps, spears and so on which were gathered by John H. Ward, banker, and there its history ends. There was no notation upon the back to indicate its history neither was there any signature by the artist. But it does not take any unusual cerebration to put a few facts together and draw the conclusion that the portrait was presented by Mr. Webster to his second wife, Miss Caroline' LeRoy whom he married in 1829.

The LeRoys lived for a time at a village named after the LeRoy family, ten miles east of Batavia. Those of the alumni who have been in the advertising business, their number being legion, will remember LeRoy as the home of the Jell-O account which they so oftentimes solicited. The remainder of the living band of Dartmouth men will get what the writer means when he says LeRoy is the place where gypsum, talc or whatever it is, is turned into Allen's Foot-Ease, that proprietary remedy which has a habit of using interrupting advertisements in the joke columns of Life.

Anyway, Daniel Webster is known to have visited at the LeRoy home in Leßoy. A photograph of the house, as it is today, also accompanies this piece. Let not the whole burden of proof rest upon the shoulders of the writer. Here is an excerpt from a "Gazetteer and Biographical Record of Genesee County, N. Y., 1788-1890, Edited by F. W. Beers." The compiler of the Gazetteer had a good name, none will deny, and his work is no more inaccurate than the average county compilation. Listen to this :

"The town took its name from Herman LeRoy, who was an affluent gentleman of French descent of the old school at the beginning of the present century. * * * The Leßoy family naturally took a lively interest in the town, where a large landed interest was centered. Jacob LeRoy, the son of Herman, came to the village to reside in 1821. * * * Jacob Leßoy enlarged the Egbert Benson office to a spacious dwelling on the east side of the Oatka, (creek) known as the LeRoy mansion. His grounds were beautifully laid out, with the choicest fruits and flowers and he was noted for his wide and generous hospitality. He was a brother in-law of Daniel Webster, the great orator and statesman, whose visits here are remembered by many of our oldest citizens. In one of his volumes of his published speeches there is a. dedication by him to the Leßoy family, highly appreciative and laudatory. It was on one of these visits that Mr. Webster had a reception which .drew a large number of his admirers from the country round, with whom he had free and cordial intercourse, who were not a little surprised that the Marshalfield sic farmer was as much at home in agriculture as in affairs of state, and in advance of all in knowledge of stock."

Had Webster lived today he would have been a wonderful source of copy for the news photographers. As it was, Webster sat for no less than nine portraits from one artist. His others are said to be legion.

And of all the many Webster portraits, it is quite reasonable to suppose that Mr. Webster considered the one reproduced herewith a satisfactory one. The supposition is that the painting was given by him to Miss Caroline LeRoy, his second wife. LeRoy residents not long dead have been recorded as saying that they remembered seeing such a portrait in the LeRoy drawing room in that village.

At any rate, the portrait which rests today in the Holland Purchase Land Office Museum in Batavia, N. Y., bears a striking likeness to a miniature which Mr. Webster presented to Miss Grace Fletcher of Hopkinton, N. H., his first wife. His first marriage took place in 1808. But, again, reason must be relied upon for assistance. Isn't it quite possible our most distinguished alumnus selected a portrait which would please his fancy when he made the presentation to his second wife ? And what more pleasing portrait can a man obtain than one printed when he was twenty years younger?

,Perhaps, through the proper channels, the Batavia museum might be induced to loan the portrait to Dartmouth college to add to its collection. That is, if the picture is deemed worthy of preservation. Otherwise, the writer fears some tourist will, some day, accommodate him or herself to the extent of lugging it away for parts unknown.

The Leßoy painting of Webster

The Jacob Leßoy House