Mapping the First Ladies: Nellie Bly Visits Lucy Webb Hayes

Surrounded by her beloved pet dogs, Dot and Jet, Lucy Hayes welcomed the trailblazing journalist Nellie Bly into her Fremont, Ohio home, which she shared with her husband, former President Rutherford B. Hayes.

Bly had come not merely to interview, but to observe.

Impressions of Lucy Webb Hayes

Nellie Bly was struck by Lucy Hayes’s renowned beauty.

Lucy was tall and simply dressed, her black hair smoothed over her ears and worn in a modest bun at the nape of her neck. Bly noted Lucy’s large grey eyes, which, in moments of excitement, “grew black.” During their brief conversation, Bly found Lucy to be “full of fun,” revealing a vibrant personality beneath her composed exterior.

Hayes Family Home and Hospitality

Bly described the Hayes’s two-story brick house as having “wide windows and long broad verandas dotted with green and red cane chairs.” The residence was not only comfortable but also welcoming. The former First Lady was known for her kindness; neighbors confirmed that Mrs. Hayes “was kind to everybody,” and no visitor was ever turned away from the couple’s home.

Early Life and Education

According to the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Library and Museums, Lucy Webb Hayes was born in Chillicothe, Ohio on August 28, 1831.

Her father, Dr. James Webb, died while traveling to Kentucky to free slaves he had inherited - an early moral influence that shaped Lucy’s worldview. At the time of her father’s passing, Lucy was just two years old.

Her mother, Maria Cook Webb, valued education for all her children. Lucy attended Cincinnati Wesleyan Female College, graduating in 1850. She met Rutherford B. Hayes at Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, and they married two years later. Together, they had seven sons and one daughter.

Lucy Hayes as First Lady

When Rutherford Hayes became President, Lucy was the first presidential spouse to be referred to as “First Lady.”

She prohibited the serving of alcohol at White House social events, earning her the nickname “Lemonade Lucy.” Yet this reformist gesture coexisted with warmth and sociability - something Bly clearly recognized when the two met in Fremont.

Always fond of children, Lucy helped formalize the tradition of the Easter Egg Roll on the White House lawn - a small but enduring gesture toward children and public accessibility.

Later Years and Legacy

After Hayes’s term ended, the couple retired to Fremont in 1881. Lucy spent her final eight years at their cherished home, “Spiegel Grove.”

Lucy Hayes passed away at the age of 57 on July 25, 1889, just fifteen days before the death of First Lady Julia Gardiner Tyler on July 10th.

Contemporaries often remarked that the two women resembled sisters.

That timing always catches the breath.

Why This Moment Matters

The encounter between Nellie Bly and Lucy Webb Hayes reminds us that history is often preserved in formal portraits and political summaries — but understood through personal observation.

By the time Bly visited Spiegel Grove, Lucy Hayes was no longer First Lady. The ceremonies were over. The criticism had faded. What remained was character.

Bly’s description gives us something rare: a former First Lady in her own space — laughing, welcoming, animated. Not a symbol of reform. Not “Lemonade Lucy.” But a woman with warmth, humor, and deep personal conviction.

Moments like this challenges easy narratives. They remind us that public figures carry private dimensions that rarely make it into textbooks.

And for the Mapping the Memories of First Ladies series, this matters profoundly. Bly’s visits allow us to see how these women were experienced in their own time — not as myth, not as caricature, but as living personalities.

Here, we focus on understanding the moment as it was experienced — not on drawing modern parallels.

Sources:

Chicago Tribune, November 4, 1888

Hayes Presidential Library & Museums: www.rbhayes.org

Image Citations

Lucy Webb Hayes Portrait
Lucy Webb Hayes. Photograph, ca. 1870s. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C.

Lucy Webb Hayes Dress (Inspiration Reference)
Evening Dress, ca. 1870s–1880s. Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of American History.

Nellie Bly Portrait (Inspiration Reference)
Nellie Bly (Elizabeth Cochrane Seaman). Photograph, ca. 1880s. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.

United States Railroad Map (Background Inspiration)
“Map of Land-Grant and Bond-Aided Railroads of the United States.” 19th century. Library of Congress Geography and Map Division.

Series Artwork
“Mapping the Memories of First Ladies: Nellie Bly Visits Lucy Webb Hayes.”
Original illustration created for History in Two Voices, 2026.