• Dolley Madison, National Heroine
• Jim Thorpe and Babe Ruth: Sports Legends
• Assignment 5

The only first lady of the United States from North Carolina, Dolley Payne Todd Madison, is also one of the most famous first ladies. Renowned for her bravery, social graces, and shaping of the role of first lady, Madison achieved legendary status across the country in her day. Her legacy thrives today in classrooms and in books chronicling her life. But how much of what is popularly known about Dolley Madison is fact, and how much is fiction?

Dolley Payne was born to Quaker parents in the New Garden settlement (near where Greensboro’s Guilford College stands today) of Rowan County (present-day Guilford County) on May 20, 1768. Virginians John Payne and Mary Coles had moved to North Carolina in 1765. Eleven months after Dolley’s birth, the family returned to their home state. Madison grew up comfortably, attending school and becoming a fine seamstress. In 1783 the family moved to Philadelphia, then the nation’s capital. It was there that Madison, as a teenager, first became involved in society life.

In January 1790 Dolley Payne wed John Todd Jr., a promising Quaker lawyer. The young couple bought a home in Philadelphia and soon welcomed two sons, John Payne in 1792 and William Temple 1793. On October 24, 1793, both Todd and the infant William Temple died of yellow fever in an epidemic that swept the city.

Soon the charming young widow had many suitors. In May 1794 James Madison Jr. asked fellow congressman Aaron Burr to introduce him to Dolley Todd. Though Madison was seventeen years older and not a Quaker, Dolley’s friends and family considered him a good match for her. The couple wed in September 1794, four months after they met, and lived in Philadelphia for three years until Madison’s congressional term ended. Madison then retired from politics, moving the family to Montpelier, his family’s estate in Orange County, Virginia. There they lived quietly as planters for three years until newly elected president Thomas Jefferson asked Madison to serve as his secretary of state. Madison accepted, and Dolley began an exciting chapter of her life in the nation’s new capital, Washington, D.C.

Both Jefferson and his vice president, Aaron Burr, were widowers. As a result, Dolley became Jefferson’s hostess, a role at which she excelled, and was soon one of Washington’s most important and well-known women. In 1809 when James Madison became the fourth president of the United States, Dolley became the “official” first lady. Her elegance, fashion sense, and charm shined as she presided at her husband’s grand inaugural ball, entertained at many important receptions, and decorated the White House (after convincing legislators to appropriate funds for the task). She also did a great deal behind the scenes to support her husband. Some historians even credit her with Madison’s reelection in 1812.

But Dolley Madison is most famous for one heroic deed: saving important cabinet documents and Gilbert Stuart’s portrait of George Washington when the British invaded the nation’s capital during the War of 1812. On August 22, 1814, President Madison left the White House to review the troops outside the city just before the British invasion. In a letter to her sister, Dolley wrote of her husband’s concern for her: “He inquired seriously whether I had the courage, or firmness to remain in the President’s house until his return, on the morrow, or succeeding day, and on my assurance that I had no fear but for him and the success of our army, he left me, beseeching me to take care of myself, and of the cabinet papers, public and private.” Twice urged by James H. Blake, the city’s mayor, to leave the city as British troops approached, she held fast in the White House for news of her husband. While waiting anxiously with a few servants, she packed state papers in a trunk and insisted that the large portrait of Washington be taken from a wall and removed from its heavy frame. Just after the painting had been secured on a wagon, she and her servants fled to safety in Georgetown. Shortly afterwards, the British burned the Executive Mansion and other public buildings in the city. The bravery, patriotism, and loyalty she exhibited have become legendary.

The Madisons never again lived in the White House, which needed major repairs after the fire. They moved to a rented house in Washington until Madison’s second term as president ended in March 1817. Returning to Montpelier, the couple readied Madison’s papers for publication and continued to entertain in great style. Friends, family, and dignitaries visited them at Montpelier, and Dolley, as always, graciously welcomed them all.

After several years of failing health, through which his devoted wife tended to him, James Madison died on June 28, 1836, at the age of eighty-six. A year later, after selling the first three volumes of her husband’s papers to Congress, Dolley Madison returned to Washington, leaving her son, Payne Todd, in charge of Montpelier. She quickly regained her position in the capital’s social circles, entertaining distinguished visitors as she had as first lady. In his mother’s absence, Todd mismanaged Montpelier, leaving them with no income. In 1844 Dolley was forced to sell the plantation. Later she had to mortgage her house in Washington and even borrow money from friends. She finally received relief in 1848 when Congress purchased the remainder of her husband’s papers for the Library of Congress.

Dolley Madison’s final public appearance was at fellow North Carolina native James K. Polk’s last presidential reception in February 1849. After a short illness, she died on July 12 that same year at the age of eighty-one. Her funeral was a state occasion, attended by the president, cabinet officers, the diplomatic corps, members of the House of Representatives and Senate, the justices of the Supreme Court, and other dignitaries.

Best known for her bravery, poise, and style, Dolley Madison also served her country in quieter, though no less important, ways, promoting the arts, the Library of Congress, an orphanage in Washington, and the building of the Washington Monument. She was also influential in keeping Washington as the nation’s capital after the War of 1812. A legend in her own time, this first lady continues to capture the nation’s heart more than 150 years later.

Dolley's Many Images

Advertisements have put forward diverse images of Dolley Madison through the years. These images are courtesy of the Dolley Madison Project.

In this advertisement for Interstate Bakeries Boston cream pie, probably made between 1923 and 1933, the image more closely resembles Little Bo Peep than Dolley Madison.

The Dolly Madison Pickle Company came closer to an accurate depiction of Madison.

The image on this Dolly Madison cigar label, produced between 1910 and 1920, bears little resemblance to Madison.

This cigar label offers a much different portrayal of Madison, based closely on a portrait by John Frances Eugene Prud’homme.

Dolley’s Legends
Was her name Dolley, or was it Dolly, Dorothea, or Dorothy? And did she really risk her life to save Stuart’s portrait of Washington? Read more about these and other legends and decide for yourself.

Dolley Madison Links

The Burning of Washington
http://www.nationalcenter.org/WashingtonBurning1814.html
The transcription of the letter Dolley Madison wrote to her sister as the British invaded Washington during the War of 1812.

The Dolley Madison Project
http://www.vcdh.virginia.edu/madison/overview/index.html
An extensive site from the Virginia Center for Digital History offering a biography, time line, images, letters, and more.

Dolley Payne Todd Madison
http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/firstladies/dm4.html
A portrait and brief biography of Madison from the White House Web site.

Saving History: Dolley Madison, the White House, and the War of 1812
http://www.whitehousehistory.org/04/subs/04_b_1812.html
A lesson plan from the White House Historical Association that concentrates on primary documents connected to Dolley Madison.

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The following article appeared in Tar Heel Junior Historian 39 (spring 2000), 22–25.
 

Jim Thorpe and Babe Ruth: Sports Legends

by Jim L. Sumner*

If you are a sports fan, you have probably heard the names Jim Thorpe and Babe Ruth. Even though both men died about fifty years ago, they are still considered among the greatest athletes of all time. When the sports television network ESPN compiled its list of top athletes of the twentieth century, it listed Ruth at number two and Thorpe at number eight.

What you may not know is that both of these athletic legends played sports in North Carolina when they were quite young. Their experiences in this state were very important. 
 

Thanks in part to a children's letter writing campaign, Thorpe was commemorated on a Wheaties box in 2001.

Jim Thorpe was born in Oklahoma in 1888. He was a Fox and Sac Indian. He attended college at Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania. Thorpe was All-America in football in the fall of 1908. He spent the spring and summer of 1909 in North Carolina in a fun summer job—playing minor league baseball for the Rocky Mount Railroaders. The Railroaders belonged to the Eastern Carolina League, which also included teams in Fayetteville, Goldsboro, Raleigh, Wilmington, and Wilson. Thorpe earned twenty-five dollars per week. Many college athletes played minor league baseball during the summers in the early years of the century. In fact, two of Thorpe’s Carlisle teammates joined him in Rocky Mount. Many college players used phony names when they played minor league ball, but Thorpe did not. The local fans knew all about his college exploits.

Thorpe played pitcher, infielder, and outfielder for Rocky Mount. He was fast and strong. The Rocky Mount fans loved him. One fan, Thomas McMillan, told historian Robert Reising that Thorpe made many friends while warming up before the games. Thorpe would intentionally hit or throw balls outside the ballpark. That meant that the schoolkids who chased the balls down could get into the games free by bringing back the balls. It’s no wonder that Thorpe had many young fans.

Jim Thorpe came back to Rocky Mount in 1910 for another summer of baseball. Despite a sore arm, he continued to pitch, in addition to playing outfield. Late in the season he was traded to Fayetteville. Thorpe became as popular with the fans in Fayetteville as he had been in Rocky Mount. According to one story, he won a bet and delighted numerous Fayetteville observers by running headfirst through a restaurant window. However, Thorpe did not get along with his Fayetteville manager and did not come back to North Carolina after the 1910 season.
 

Thorpe later paid a high price for his two summers in the state. In 1912 he won two gold medals in the Summer Olympics, including one in the difficult decathlon, which contains ten events. He was praised as the world’s greatest athlete. The following year, authorities discovered that he had received payment for playing baseball in North Carolina. All Olympians at that time were supposed to be amateurs, and being paid violated his amateur status. Thorpe’s gold medals were taken away.

The heartbroken athlete went on to play major league baseball and professional football. He tried for years to get his medals returned but was unsuccessful. He died in 1953. In 1983 the International Olympic Committee changed its mind and returned Thorpe’s gold medals to his children.

Babe Ruth’s visit to North Carolina was very different. George Herman “Babe” Ruth was born in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1895. He was raised at Saint Mary’s Orphanage because his parents could not control him. In 1914 he signed a professional baseball contract with the Baltimore Orioles, a minor league team in the International League. In March 1914 the Orioles visited Fayetteville for spring training.

Ruth stayed in Fayetteville for only about a month, but he always remembered it. It was the first time he had ever been out of Baltimore. Ruth later wrote about how much fun he had riding the LaFayette Hotel elevators. He was so inexperienced that, according to legend, one of his teammates saw him tagging along behind manager and owner Jack Dunn in Fayetteville and said, “There goes Dunn’s new babe.” That gave Ruth his famous nickname. 

On March 7 Ruth played in his first intrasquad game—a game between members of the same team. The two sides took the names Buzzards and Sparrows. Ruth was a Buzzard. His team won the game 15 to 9. He hit a long home run, described by Fayetteville residents as the longest home run they had ever seen. Ruth recalled that “I hit it as I hit all the others, by taking a good gander at the pitch as it came up to the plate, twisting my body into a backswing, and then hitting it as hard as I could swing.”

The newspaper Baltimore American featured Babe Ruth’s first picture made 
as a professional ballplayer and gave details of his first home run.

Ruth started his professional baseball career as a pitcher. He pitched well in spring training in Fayetteville, even against major league teams. On March 25 he beat the Philadelphia Athletics 6 to 2. The Athletics was the best team in the American League. Baltimore newspapers began to rave about the rookie pitcher. A month after leaving Baltimore for the first time, he had become a celebrity in his hometown.

In his brief trip to North Carolina, Ruth learned that he could be successful against the best players in the game. He was on his way to the top. In fact, he was in the major leagues before the end of 1914, only a few months after his visit to Fayetteville. In the 1920s and 1930s, when he was the most famous baseball player in the world, Ruth frequently visited North Carolina in the off-season to hunt and play golf.
 

Ruth at a hunting lodge on the North Carolina coast, 1928.

Jim Thorpe and Babe Ruth eventually became world famous. However, both certainly remembered the days in North Carolina when they were young and just starting out on the road to becoming legends.

*Jim Sumner is the curator of sports, recreation, and leisure, and a research historian, at the North Carolina Museum of History.
 

Ruth was also pictured on a Wheaties box. General Mills issued it in 1992.

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Babe Ruth and Jim Thorpe Web Sites

The Official Babe Ruth Web Site
http://www.baberuth.com/
Photos, a biography, FAQs, statistics, and more.

Babe Ruth’s Birthplace and Museum
http://www.baberuthmuseum.com/
Information about the museum, biographical info, and an interactive timeline of Ruth's life.

Baby Ruth
http://www.snopes2.com/business/names/babyruth.htm
The Urban Legends Reference Pages investigation of the legend of the candy bar name.

Jim Thorpe Official Web Site
http://www.cmgww.com/sports/thorpe/index.php
A biography, photos, career highlights, and more.

This Day in History: Jim Thorpe
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/may28.html
A brief biography plus links and images from the Library of Congress.

World-Class Athlete Jim Thorpe Was Born May 28, 1888
http://www.americaslibrary.gov/jb/gilded/jb_gilded_thorpe_1.html
A site for students from the Library of Congress.

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I think Michael Jordan is legendary because he’s a perfect basketball player.

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Assignment 5

Complete one of the following assignments:

Option 1:
When asked to name legends from North Carolina, several students from Exploris Middle School chose current entertainment and sports stars, such as Michael Jordan and actor Frankie Muniz. Do you think such celebrities are legends? Why or why not? State your case on the workshop’s Bulletin Board.

Option 2:
What’s the difference between a hero and a legend? Can a hero not be a legend? A legend not be a hero? Create a lesson plan to find out your students’ opinions.

Option 3: (If you are seeking reading credits, choose this option)
Many students are more easily engaged in reading material that interests them, and that they can select themselves. Develop a lesson plan in which your students create their own reading lists around legends of their choosing that have inspired them or their community. Reading materials can include essays, nonfiction books, historical fiction, biographies, Web sites, diaries, letters, music lyrics, etc.

Submit your completed assignment via e-mail to: tricia.l.blakistone@ncdcr.gov.