For over 60 years, Lew Wallace had a relationship with the plot of land in downtown Indianapolis that came to be known as Monument Circle. This property was originally called the governor’s circle and Wallace’s relationship with the circle began during his boyhood when he hid in the basement of a large house built for, but never used by, the governors of Indiana. As a youth roaming around the capital city, Lew and his friends found their way into the basement of the Governor’s house in the middle of the downtown circle. While the house was never occupied by any governors, it was used by men in the community. One of the occupants was Judge Isaac Blackford who lived in and worked out of the old mansion. Many of the other local attorneys and judges began to use this house as an informal place to meet and socialize.
The basement of the house was a vast, unlighted cellar filled with boxes, barrels, and as Lew wrote in his autobiography, “. . . debris of such varied ins and outs as to be dangerous, if not quite impassable, to the unfamiliar.” The basement was also supposed to be haunted by a workman who, on good authority, was reportedly buried in deep, dark, dank cellar.
Lew and a few of his cohorts found this basement and its intrigue impossible to pass up and used the lower area of the house as a meeting and rendezvous spot much as the lawyers did upstairs. Boys being boys, they decided it would be fun to take long poles and began punching the underside of the floors just as the attorneys were engaging in their debates and discussions. The more the men yelled and stomped their feet, the louder the boys would hit the underside of the floor. The rascals could easily hear when the men had had enough and were headed to the basement to apprehend the criminals so like rats, the boys scattered into the dark recesses of the cellar to preselected hiding places.
After a couple of these episodes, the men turned the tables and had the local sheriff of the court and several bailiffs lie in wait for the boys. At the first thump, the cellar doors were seized shut and with lanterns each boy was fished out by his shirt collar. As Wallace wrote: “With an inconceivable hardness of heart, the myrmidons took us up-stairs and before the judges. There I made the acquaintance of Isaac Blackford . . .”
This house became very run down and was demolished in 1857.
As Indianapolis grew and developed after the Civil War, the area became a popular meeting place and was designated Circle Park. After the death of Oliver P. Morton in 1877, his friends decided to erect a statue in his honor in commemoration of his service during the Civil War. A group called the Morton Memorial Association was formed with Lew Wallace as president. Under Wallace’s term, a bronze statue of Governor Morton costing $14,000 was designed and cast. The statue was placed in the center of Circle Park in 1884 where it stood until the erection of the Indiana State Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument.
Almost from the moment that the Morton statue was placed in Circle Park, suggestions began being floated that a large monument honoring Indiana’s veterans should be built on the site. In 1887, the Indiana General Assembly made a $200,000 grant and formed a Monument Commission. The General Assembly was in part responding to pressure from members of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) which supported the project. As a leading member of the GAR, Lew Wallace’s name was used on behalf of the effort. Wallace’s Montgomery County friend and neighbor General Mahlon D. Manson was appointed to the Monument Commission.
The project moved forward and in August of 1889, the cornerstone was laid in a grand ceremony that included a speech by President Benjamin Harrison. The development of the monument continued with design competitions, funding concerns and other issues for several years. In 1893, the name of the circle was official changed to Monument Circle. The Monument Commission faced difficult issues, both political and financial, and on March 6, 1895, the structure of the commission was completely changed by the Legislature when they abolished the Board of Commissions for the Indiana Soldiers’ & Sailors’ Monument and established a Board of Regents.
The new board that was appointed included General Lew Wallace, Commander G.V. Menzies, and General Fred Knefler. General Knefler, who was a close personal friend of Wallace’s having served under Wallace early in the Civil War, would prove to be instrumental in completing the high-profile project.
Wallace accepted the position and quickly made his thoughts known. In a May 13, 1895, article in The Milwaukee Journal under the headline, “He Will Reform the Indiana Soldiers’ Monument,” Wallace was quoted:
Gen. Lew Wallace, who has been appointed president of the new board of regents of the Indiana soldiers’ monument, is preparing to stir up a sensation in the G.A. R. of Indiana. Gen. Wallace takes a firm stand against most of the art features of the monument as it now stands—nearly completed and as the 60,000 G.A.R. people saw it at the recent national encampment here. He believes the board of regents should not be bound by any acts of the old commission. He holds the regents should have the right to alter the monument even to tearing it down and building it over again if they see fit.
The monument is surmounted by a female figure, Indiana, the work of Sculptor Brewster of Boston, which cost $14,000. This, Gen. Wallace says, must come down. In criticising Indiana he says she is an insult to the womanhood of the state. He says the figure typifies nothing save disreputable female camp followers so notorious during the war. He believes an infantryman should have the place at the top of the monument.
A contract for two art groups from MacMonnies was entered into by the old monument commission. They are to cost $100,000 and would bring the total cost of the monument to $400,000. Gen. Wallace, however, does not spare MacMonnies. He studied the French sculptor’s work at the World’s fair and was unable to find in it the great merit popularly given. Gen. Wallace does not outline his plans for a substitution in the respect of the monument, but indicates if he is to be at the head of the board of regents there will have to be many radical changes.
Wallace did not serve as the head of the board for very long. He resigned after the first meeting and General Jasper Packard was appointed to fill the vacancy created by Wallace’s departure.
The project moved forward under the leadership of Fred Knefler, fences were mended, and the monument was formally dedicated on May 15, 1902. The statue of Oliver Morton that was removed from Circle Park was reinstalled as part of the finished monument. Lew Wallace served as master of ceremonies for a tremendous program that included a parade of flags with veterans of the Mexican, Civil, and Spanish-American Wars, a prayer led by General David R. Lucas and speeches by Governor Winfield T. Durban, Secretary of State John W. Foster and Lew Wallace. A male chorus sang and James Whitcomb Riley recited his poem “The Soldier.” Attended by thousands and thousands of people, the crowd enjoyed a march created for the occasion by John Philip Sousa entitled “The Messiah of the Nations.” The bells of Christ Church rang and the church choir sang “My County, ‘Tis of Thee” to complete the event. It was the first monument in the United States dedicated to the common soldier.
The finished neoclassical monument at the center of Indianapolis stands as a tribute to Hoosiers who served in the American Revolution, the War of 1812, the Mexican-American War, the Civil War, the Frontier Wars, and the Spanish-American War. The final cost to build the monument in 1902 was almost $600,000. In twenty-first century dollars, it would cost approximately $500,000,000. The men, including Lew Wallace, who were involved in its inception, design, and ultimate completion felt passionately about the structure and the importance of its message. Thanks to their diligent efforts, this monument has been the symbol of Indianapolis and the State of Indiana for over 100 years. As Lew was speaking at the dedication, it’s fun to wonder if memories of his boyhood pranks in the basement of the old house that stood on the circle came back to him.
