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 June 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 developed 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 disrepair, 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 20th 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 ==