July 1 marks the birthdate of Cedar Hill Cemetery resident Gideon Welles. Gideon Welles was born July 1, 1802 in Glastonbury, Connecticut. He earned his degree from Norwich University, became a lawyer by “reading the law,” and became founder and editor of the
Hartford Times in 1826.
Welles became active politically. He started his political career as a Democrat and served in the Connecticut State Legislature. In 1854, Welles joined the newly-established Republican party and founded the
Hartford Evening Post in 1856. Welles had strong anti-slavery views and was an avid supporter of Abraham Lincoln. When Lincoln became President, he named Gideon Welles Secretary of the Navy.
While the navy was in complete disarray when he took office, Welles is credited with establishing order and implementing some of the founding principals upon which the navy still functions today. During his tenure, he and his wife became quite close to the Lincoln family. In fact, Welles was in the room with President Lincoln as he lay dying from his gunshot wound. Of this experience, Welles wrote the following in his diary on April 15, 1865:
“…About 6 a.m. I experienced a feeling of faintness and, for the first time after entering the room, a little past eleven, I left it and the house, and took a short walk in the open air. It was a dark and gloomy morning, and rain set in before I returned to the house, some fifteen minutes later. Large groups of people were gathered every few yards, all anxious and solicitous. Some one or more from each group stepped forward as I passed to inquire into the condition of the President and to ask if there was no hope. Intense grief was on every countenance when I replied that the President could survive but a short time. The colored people especially – and there were at this time more of them, perhaps, than of whites – were overwhelmed with grief.
A little before seven. I went into the room where the dying president was rapidly drawing near the closing moments. His wife soon after made last visit to him. The death struggle had begun. Robert, his son, stood with several others at the head of his bed. He bore himself well, but on two occasions gave way to overpowering grief and sobbed aloud, turning his head and leaning on the shoulder of Senator Sumner. The respiration of the President became suspended at intervals and at last entirely ceased at twenty-two minutes past seven.”
Welles was an accomplished as well as, at times, a controversial figure. Welles had been known for purchasing the freedom of slaves and employing them and other previous slaves in his home. Henry Greene was one of his employees who had previously been a slave and during his tenure with the family, he became very close to the Welles’. In fact, when Welles completed his government service, Henry Greene returned with the Welles family to Hartford. Gideon Welles died in 1878 and Henry continued to work for the family until he died in 1911. In his will, Gideon Welles had expressed his wish for Henry Greene to be buried at the Welles lot at Cedar Hill Cemetery. On June 17, 1811, the
Hartford Times covered the burial of Henry Greene at Hartford’s elitist Cedar Hill Cemetery on its front page. Many were upset to find that a former slave had been interred at Cedar Hill Cemetery. Henry Greene is still buried at Cedar Hill, and we are honored to have the task of keeping his memory alive.
Cedar Hill Cemetery Foundation welcomed 250 people to its annual Haunted History Lantern Tour. "Tourists" were visited by the "spirits" of Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles, Colt gun manufacturers Samuel and Elizabeth Colt, women's suffragist and spiritualist Isabella Beecher Hooker, the Mark Howard "Bad" Angel, and dentist Dr. Horace Wells. Each of these notables shared a piece of their lives and accomplishments with the audience. The event has received rave reviews, and we are already looking forward to next year's Haunted History Lantern Tour.
