Henry Clay Monument

The Henry Clay Monument is a public monument in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, United States. Work on the monument, which consists of a state of Henry Clay atop a Doric column, began in 1852, shortly after his death, and ended in 1855.

As a politician in the early 19th century, Clay was an advocate for the American System of protective tariffs that helped Pottsville's anthracite industry, and upon his death in 1852, several prominent citizens in the city advocated for the erection of a monument in his honor. Work commenced with the laying of a cornerstone on July 26, 1852, and ended in June 1855, with the structure dedicated on July 4 (Independence Day) of that year. The column was designed by Frank Hewson and created by George Fissler, while the statue was designed by sculptor H. Wesche and cast at the Robert Wood & Company foundry in Philadelphia. Both these structures are made of cast iron and painted white.

Design 
The monument consists of a column of the Doric order topped by a statue of Henry Clay, similar in overall design to the Robert E. Lee Monument in New Orleans and Nelson's Column in London. Both the column and the statue are made of cast iron, and the entire structure is painted white. The column rests on a stone base, with materials quarried from nearby mountains. The statue, which weighs about , depicts a standing Clay whose appearance is based on the painting Senate of 1850 by Peter F. Rothermel. Clay faces northwards, looking over the city. The column is made up of eight segments, each  tall that are secured together by interior flanges. The entire weight of both the column and the statue is roughly .

The monument's base has a height of  and an area of  by . The column is  tall, with a base covering an area of  by , while the statue is roughly . The monument is located on South Centre Street, near Washington Street, on a ridge overlooking the city, just beneath Cloud Home. The base of the monument is situated about  above the nearest sidewalk.

The base of the monument has three inscriptions on its east, north, and south faces, which are as follows:

History

Background 
Henry Clay was a Virginia-born politician who was active during the first half of the 19th century. As a member of the United States Congress, Clay was a proponent of the American System, an economic plan that relied on high tariffs in order to foster the growth of American industry. This especially applied to iron products produced in the United Kingdom, which helped spur the development of the domestic iron industry. Because coal is used in the production of iron products, the tariffs and Clay's advocacy for it was well received in Pennsylvania, as it benefitted the state's anthracite coal industry. This was especially true in the city of Pottsville, which was located in Pennsylvania's Coal Region and was a center of anthracite-mining. Clay died on July 29, 1852, and in Pennsylvania, he was memorialized as the namesake of a coal mine near Shamokin, and with the naming of the borough of Ashland, which is the name of Clay's estate in Kentucky.

Plans for a monument 

Due to his economic policies that helped the anthracite industry, Clay was beloved in Pottsville, and within a month of his death, local residents were planning to construct a monument in his honor. The Henry Clay Monument Association was established, made up of several notable residents of Pottsville, including Frank Hewson, a civil engineer who worked on the Mount Carbon Railroad; Samuel Sillyman, a coal mine operator and treasurer of Pottsville who was active in the Whig Party; and Edward Yardley, a businessman who operated a hardware business and served as president of a local natural gas company. One of the first plans this committee developed was to hold a funeral procession for Clay in Pottsville. On July 26, 1,600 people attended this ceremony. During these obsequies, a cornerstone for a monument to Clay was laid on land that had been donated by John Bannan, a local Whig activist and publisher of the Miner's Journal. The location for the monument was situated on a ridge below Bannan's Cloud Home estate.

Builders 

Following the placement of this cornerstone, work on the monument progressed slowly. On August 16, the monument association established a building committee to oversee the construction of the memorial. Hewson served as the project's architect and designed the overall design for the column. This column was created by George B. Fissler. Meanwhile, the statue of Clay was designed by H. Wesche, a Philadelphia-based sculptor, and was cast at the foundry of Robert Wood & Company, also based in Philadelphia. The statue would be the first monumental cast iron sculpture created in the United States. In total, about 150 wooden patterns were used in the sand casting process. Jacob Madara, a local stonemason, oversaw the structure's stonework construction.

Funding and completion 
By November 27, construction of the base for the monument was completed, but work on the rest of the project stalled until 1854 due primarily to a lack of sufficient funding. In total, the monument cost $7,151 (equivalent to $ in 2021), with a total project cost of $7,342.58 ($ in 2021). Of this amount, Sillyman provided approximately $3,000 ($ in 2021), the most of any single funder of the project. The statue itself cost the monument association $2,090 ($ in 2021). On September 26, 1854, the first section of the column was received at Port Carbon and hauled to Pottsville, with more parts coming in the following months.

On June 9, 1855, the monument association held a meeting to discuss further fundraising efforts and to plan a dedication ceremony for the monument, which they expected to hold that Independence Day, July 4. Around this time, the association still needed to raise $2,433 ($ in 2021) to complete the project. By June 14, work on the column was fully completed, and on June 23, it was hauled up the hill and to the base of the monument by a team of 12 mules. Several days later, on June 26, the statue of Clay was lifted atop the now-erect column by Walter Chillson. An  derrick was used in placing this statue. The placement of the statue was met with cheers and a cannon blast from a crowd of sightseers that had gathered around the site. Initially, the statue faced east, but one day after it was raised, it was rotated to face north, as the monument association believed that this position, which would allow Clay to overlook the city of Pottsville, was more appealing. With the monument's completion, it became the first monument to Henry Clay erected in the United States.

The monument was dedicated on July 4, 1855. The dedication included a large procession that featured members of the local Independent Order of Odd Fellows lodge, veterans from the Mexican–American War, and members of various civic organizations. The ceremony at the monument following the procession was overseen by Bannan and included speeches from several noted local citizens, a prayer held by a local priest, and the reading of the United States Declaration of Independence.

Later history 

By the mid-20th century, the monument had been more-or-less neglected and fallen into a state of neglect, prompting the creation of a new monument committee in 1953 to oversee preservation efforts. Despite beliefs by the original constructors of the monument that theirs would be the first in a series of Clay monuments erected across the country, by 1985, the only other monument to the politician was at his gravesite in Lexington, Kentucky. This is due in part to the fact that while Clay was well known during his lifetime, he had become a generally forgotten figure to the general public over the next century. During the later half of the century, the area surrounding the monument was cleaned and the structure itself was refurbished. In the 1980s, the statue was removed from the column for cleaning, and it was returned on August 26, 1985, and rededicated on October 19 of that year. In 1994, the monument was surveyed as part of the Save Outdoor Sculpture! project. By 2022, instances of vandalism to the monument prompted the installation of lights to illuminate the structure. Around this same time, the monument faced possible structural issues due to erosion at the site, as well as the structure being partially obscured by surrounding trees, though Pottsville Mayor Dave Clews stated that preservation work on the monument was not a high priority to the city.

See also 
 Lexington Cemetery, listed on the National Register of Historic Places as "Lexington Cemetery and Henry Clay Monument"
 Statue of Henry Clay (U.S. Capitol)

Notes

References

Sources

Further reading

External links 

 
 

1855 establishments in Pennsylvania
1855 sculptures
Buildings and structures in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania
Henry Clay
Iron sculptures in the United States
Monumental columns in the United States
Monuments and memorials in Pennsylvania
Outdoor sculptures in Pennsylvania
Sculptures of men in Pennsylvania
Statues in Pennsylvania
Vandalized works of art in Pennsylvania