The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1902-08-27
MEMORIAL FOR A SPY
TO HONOR NAME OF ELIZABETH
VAN LEW.
Aided Union Forces During Civil War
Took Leaders of Confederacy Into
Her Home to Board.

OF Dutch descent, born in the historic
Van Lew mansion, on the highest of
Richmond's seven hills, an emancipat-
or of slaves, a friend to Northern pris-
oners, a spy for the Union during the
Civil War-such is a brief record of the
dramatic and heroic life of Elizabeth
l.. Van Lew, whose grave in Rich
mond, Va, is to be marked in a few
days by a memorial given by Massa-
chusetts friends.
The memorial, says the New York
Telegram, is a large bOWlder of pud-
dingstone taken from the State House
grounds on Beacon Hill Boston. 1t
weighs about two tons and was secur-
ed during the recent excavations on the
easterly side of that building. Upon it
was placed a bronze tablet bearing the
following inscription:
Elizabeth L. Van Lew, 1S1S-19O0
She risked everything that is dear to
man-friends, fortune, comfort, health,
life itself-all for the one-absorbing
| desire of her heart, that slavery might
be abolished and the Union preserved.
This Bowlder from the Capitol Hill in
Boston is a tribute from Massachusetts,
friends"
Although Miss Van Lew was born in
| her fathers mansion in Richmond, she
was a Northerner in sentiment. Be
fore his removal to the South her faith
er was a citizen of New York. Sh 2
was educated in Philadelphia; from
| this source and the Influences of home
she imbibed a passionate love for the
Union and an intense hatred for slav-
cry. Indeed, even before the Civil War
much of the family fortune had been
! spent in buying slaves in order to set
| them free
Either from necessity or as a part
of well-matuTed plan, as the war APP
preached, Miss Van Lew took into her
home to board a number of persons,
| among them some of the leaders of
the Confederacy. This, continued Tor
long time, disarmed suspicion of Miss
Van Lew, who began to work for the
| North by visiting the prisons and hos
| pitfalls. Her work in the prisons and
| hospitals suggested to her the idea of
| sending information to the Federal
| commanders, and thus her active work
| as a spy began. She used TO send her
! information in cipher, the dispatch be-
| ing inclosed between the soles of the
! boots of an old negro.
The key to the cipher she kept to the
day of her death, carefully folded VI
in the case of her watch.
! This remarkable woman helped very
many Union prisoners to escape from
Richmond, hiding some of them in her
mansion for months.
In recognition of and in gratitude
| for her services to the Union, General
Grant appointed her pOstmistress al
| Richmond. 1t was by his order thai
| Immediately upon the entrance of the
! Union troops into Richmond a special
| guard was sent to protect her On thiS
| occasion the Confederates had scarcely
left the city before she flung to the
breeze from her house an immense
American flag, which foated there
several hours before the troops raised
their standard over the Confederate
capital. The imaginative may well be-
lieve that the raising of the Stars and
! Stripes signifying the realization OF
! her great hopes, gave to - s staunch
! patriot the purest joy Of all her event
full life.
Miss Van Lew died September &C.
1900. She was never forgotten by GER
! tain prominent Boston people who had
| espoused enthusiastically the cause Of
! the Union. They agreed to make her
last days comfortable.