Charles Cornelius Hemming (1844–1916)

This week we travel to the naturally stunning destination of Colorado Springs, Colorado, one mile above sea level. If you have never visited this city, be sure to add this to your bucket list (things to do before you die). The city is dwarfed by giant Pikes Peak mountain towering high above. Though I personally pick Jacksonville as the number one city to live in the world, Money Magazine chose Colorado Springs as its number one BEST BIG CITY “Places to Live” in 2007.

If you travel there, the six top sites to visit include Pikes Peak, the United States Air Force Academy, the historical town of Colorado Springs, the picturesque mountain zoo (with more giraffes than any zoo in the world), the Colorado Springs Hotel and finally the treasure of nature “Garden of the Gods” rock formation.

Just 4 ½ miles from the “Garden of the Gods” in Colorado’s Evergreen Cemetery, rests our city’s own Charles Cornelius Hemming. His name you may recognize and immediately associate with Hemming Plaza in the center of downtown Jacksonville.

In 1899, our town council renamed St. James Park (St. James Hotel bordered the park) to Hemming Plaza to honor Hemming and his gift of the Confederate Civil War Monument. He had paid $20,000 for the monument honoring those fallen Confederate soldiers of the Civil War. Measuring the relative value of money in 1898 using the Consumer Price Index, this $20,000 is similar to a $535,000 donation made today.

What you have never been told of Hemming is that at an early age he was a true American hero. Charles Cornelius Hemming was born September 16, 1844, in Jacksonville, Florida.

Growing up, Hemming had two very close friends from Lake City, W.M. Ives and Seth S. Barnes. The boys nicknamed him “Charley.” He cherished the title and allowed close friends to use it until the day he died. The three companions agreed that just as soon as they were old enough to leave Florida and had a few dollars to spend they would move to Texas to fight Indians and kill Buffalo. While Hemming and Ives studied in school, Barnes became an apprentice of a local Jacksonville jeweler.

In spring of 1861, Barnes and Hemming started classes in Florida’s first state-supported institution of higher learning, East Florida Seminary (founded 1853) in Ocala.

Almost immediately after they started school, hostilities broke out between the North and the South. Confederate forces attacked Fort Sumter, South Carolina, on April 12, 1861. By the Fourth of July, 1861, the three friends were ready to join the war. Hemming enlisted in Company A, 3rd Florida Regiment, Ives enlisted in Company C, 4th Florida and Seth enlisted in J.J. Dickison’s, Company H, 2nd Florida Calvary. During the war, Seth was wounded but survived his wounds.

EAST COAST SEMINARY CLOSED ITS DOORS AFTER MOST OF ITS STUDENTS JOINED THE WAR. IN A LAND TRADE, THE STATE OF FLORIDA MOVED SEVERAL OF EAST FLORIDA SEMINARY BUILDINGS TO GAINESVILLE. THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA USED THESE BUILDINGS UNTIL 1911 FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES. UNVERSITY OF FLORIDA TRACES ITS ROOTS AND FOUNDING DATE TO THE ERECTING OF THAT FIRST SEMINARY BUILDING IN 1853. EPWORTH HALL (A FORMER EAST COAST SEMINARY BUILDING, CIRCA 1884) STILL STANDS IN GAINESVILLE AS A TRIBUTE TO THAT PERIOD.

Hemming fought in every battle of the Western Army that the Florida troops aided. He became seriously ill just before the battle of Chickamauga and was sent home to Jacksonville to recuperate. Just as soon as he regained his health, he rejoined his men and fought in the battle of Perryville, Kentucky, October 8, 1862, where he was wounded.

Hemming participated in the famous battle of Missionary Ridge, Chattanooga, Tennessee, on November 25, 1863. Over 64,000 Confederates engaged 56,000 Union soldiers. The Union lost 753 soldiers and only 361 Confederate soldiers were killed. The number of wounded on both sides were tremendous. Figures from the war attest to the fact that 4,722 Union soldiers were wounded and 2,160 Confederates were wounded. A strange figure that may even up the death calculations is that the Union had 349 missing soldiers and the Confederates had 4,146. This may be due to Confederate bodies being obliterated by cannon fire.

Hemming was captured during this battle and sent to a Federal prison in Nashville. He was quickly moved by train to a prison in Rockville, Illinois. It was December 1863 when he arrived in Rockville and temperatures dropped to 40 degrees below zero setting records as the coldest temperatures ever recorded in that region.

The commanding officer, Colonel Shafter, offered Hemming his release if he would provide details of Confederate troop sizes and movement. Hemming refused and as punishment was ordered placed in irons for three days.

While in captivity, Hemming regularly wrote to an aunt in New York. It was suggested that Colonel Shafter may have treated Hemming better believing he was of Northern birth. On September 28, 1864, after nearly one year in captivity, Hemming escaped to Canada. His escape was made possible by friends in prison who had acquired different articles of Federal clothing. Dressed as a Federal officer, he strolled safely out the front gate of the prison.

Once safely in Canada, he was assigned to the “Raiders” a “Special Forces-like” intelligence division, commanded by Captain John Y. Beall. During a spy mission, which Hemming aided, Captain Beall was captured and hanged. Hemming narrowly escaped and continued the mission. Disguised as a Federal officer (possibly utilizing his prison escape costume), Hemming entered Union fortifications from Niagara Falls to Chicago. At each location he stole maps and charts to assist the Confederate cause. Three times he was captured and each time made a successful escape. Failure to escape would have resulted in his certain death.

January 1865, Hemming was assigned the duty of courier of secret documents from Canada to the War department of the Confederacy in Richmond. This extremely dangerous mission required his traveling to New Brunswick then Nova Scotia, hopping a ship to the West Indies and then finally reaching Cuba. His ship was fired upon but successfully escaped capture. In Cuba Hemming rode in an open boat to the Southern tip of Florida. Still holding the secret documents, he found transportation to Richmond but ended up walking a large part of the distance. The total distance he traveled by train, ship, boat, walking and horseback avoiding capture and calamity is close to 4000 miles.

March 1865, he finally completed his mission started months earlier in Canada and safely delivered the dispatches. His final orders were to meet up with his friends (Barnes and Ives) and rejoin his old regiment now stationed in Raleigh. Either in Richmond or Raleigh he was given a brand new Confederate uniform. His friend Ives commented about this uniform in his personal notes.

The war officially ended April 9, 1865, though a battle occurred on May 13, 1865. According to notes left by his friend, Hemming arrived in Raleigh, North Carolina, the evening of April 10, 1865 (Hemming was just 21 years old), rejoining friends Barnes and Ives. The next morning at dress parade in front of his two friends and hundreds of fellow soldiers, the adjunct, Frank Phillips announced the promotion of Hemming to Sergeant Major of the 1st Florida Consolidated Regiment for his “Meritorious Conduct as a Soldier.”

The war over, Hemming returned to Jacksonville. He had served his Confederacy proudly for four years and five months. On April 6, 1867, the three friends met at Ives parent’s home in Lake City. They were ready and prepared to keep their pledge made years earlier to leave for Texas.

Ives was required to stay behind for several months so Barnes and Hemming boarded a train to Brenham, Texas. Having narrowly escaped death in the war, Barnes and Hemming arrived in Brenham as the scourge of Yellow Fever struck and the men faced death again. Both men contracted the fever. Barnes died of his illness August 10, 1867, but Hemming recovered.

Dr. John P. Key, Brenham’s physician for more than 22 years, died the following month, also from Yellow Fever.

Maybe witnessing the horrific sights and sounds of the war dead and dying prepared him for what he was about to see and do next. It is written that Hemming worried more about others with the illness than himself. To the astonishment of those around him, he visited the sick and dying sometimes just wiping a brow or consoling a loved one.

Other times he was seen holding the ill and listening to them. If someone died of their illness, he pitched in to dig the grave and bury the deceased with a prayer.

No mention is made of how Hemming met Dr. Key’s daughter, but he married Lucy Key the following year in 1868.

Hemming’s first civilian job after the war was working on the docks of Galveston. Tired of manual labor, he searched for meaningful employment. It was in Gainesville, Texas, that he found work as a bank teller and banking would be his career for life.

Maybe his good deeds during the Yellow Fever epidemic helped or his marriage to Dr. Key’s daughter, but in 1870, he was hired by the bank of Giddings & Giddings back in Brenham, Texas. He provided them with 11 years of faithful service.

Hemming returned to Gainesville, Texas, joining the Gainesville National Bank. Still continuing on his banking career path, he worked his way up to bank President and by 1896 was elected the President of the Texas State Bankers’ Association. Around that time he mentioned to an old friend that he considered Texas the “Greatest Country in the World.”

While serving as a Confederate soldier, Hemming pledged to build a monument honoring Jacksonville’s Confederate soldiers who had given their lives for the South. This goal drove his never-ending ambition for success.

In 1896, Hemming traveled to Ocala, Florida, for a reunion of the United Confederate Veterans. It was at this meeting on February 22, 1896, that he announced that he was donating and erecting a large Confederate Memorial in honor of their lost comrades. He added that a site had not been selected. This message (that he had not selected a location) was telegraphed to Confederate Veterans chapter in Jacksonville the next morning and city officials scrambled to invite Hemming to the city and attempt to secure Jacksonville as the site this unique memorial would be erected.

Jacksonville pulled out all the stops to demonstrate to Hemming that the St. James Plaza would be a perfect location to erect his war memorial. In fact, the city leaders including former Governor Flemming and Retired Commander Charles Towers promised that it would replace an elaborate fountain currently placed in the center of St. James Park.

Hemming kept the entire State of Florida in suspense when he returned to Texas. He promised that the city that would be selected would be notified after he conferred with his wife. He reminded everyone that the gift would be made jointly between he and his wife Lucy, and that she was his “helpmate in every worthy effort and noble plan.”

Of course everyone knows that Charles and Lucy Hemming selected Jacksonville.

The next two years required tremendous effort on the part of memorial designer (selected from a list of worthy artisans) who won the nationwide design competition. Once the final design was drawn and approved, a Chicago manufacturing firm, owned by George H. Mitchell, carved then assembled the marble portions. Upon its completion, Mitchell boarded a train (along with the monument) and supervised its installation in Jacksonville.

On June 16, 1898, in front of nationally well-known dignitaries and the Florida Governor, the memorial was finally unveiled. The pomp and circumstance surrounding the unveiling was a sight to see. Finally, the Chief of the Fire Department climbed a fire ladder and removed the cover. The crowd cheered! Though his family represented him, Charles Hemming sent his wishes but did not travel for the presentation.

What is perplexing is how humble he must have been to not have included his name or likeness on the memorial. There is not a single reminder of Charles Hemming inscribed on it. Hemming had no idea the Plaza would be renamed “Hemming Plaza.” To avoid all the attention by not even attending the unveiling says even more about his character.

By 1900, Hemming was extremely wealthy. He purchased the El Paso County Bank. He renamed it the the El Paso National Bank and appointed himself as the bank’s first President. Within months, Hemming opened a branch in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and relocated his family to that city.

Hemming’s final visit to Florida is documented in a Live Oak newspaper dated February 12, 1909. He attended a reunion of his United Confederate Veterans Civil War in Ocala. The article mentioned that Hemming’s brother, A.D. Hemming, was the former tax collector of the county. Hemming’s visit was to include travel to Tampa in order to visit its Sub-tropical Mid-Winter Fair.

By 1910, he invested a portion of his massive wealth into 2/5th interest in the largest tract of cattle land in Colorado located in Greenland, Colorado, just north of Colorado Springs. With its 16,280 acres of land the partners could manage 2500 head of cattle and 500 horses and still have room for 1000 acres of planting crops and 2000 acres of hay.

This expanse of land was part of the original Greenland Estate founded in 1878 by Isaac J. Noe. It is known as Greenland Ranch and still stands today. The Greenland Ranch cattle brand is the oldest registered brand in Colorado. Public tours of the site are available. It remains the largest ranch ever protected by the Federal Government in the State of Colorado.

What makes history so interesting are the research paths. Some paths may take days to quantify and lead nowhere while others may suddenly appear after minimal study leading to historic treasure. Here is one such discovery. In 1889, Hemming donated several acres of land and secured $15,000 (half of its cost) for a school 15 ½ miles South of Gainesville, Texas. The citizens were so moved by his generosity, that when the town developed into a city they named it Hemming, Texas. The city reached a population of 125 but in 1907 was wiped out by a tornado leaving just one building which survived the destruction. The city of Hemming limped along into the late 1970s when the town (with less than 10 citizens) disappeared from the map.

Another discovery involved Hemming’s children. He and Lucy had two sons and four daughters. One son, Wilmer DuPont Hemming, married Dorothy Deane Weston from Dalton, Massachusetts. Her father, Massachusetts Lieutenant Governor Byron Weston (1880-1883), was a wealthy cloth milling magnate whose mill in Dalton produced most of the fabric used in bank notes and public documents in the United States Government. Dorothy’s sister, Julia Carolyn Weston McWilliams, gave birth to a daughter named Julia. This daughter became the world-renowned beloved chef and cookbook aficionado, Julia Child.

Charles Hemming died in 1916 and was followed by his loving wife Lucy in 1935.

Today, Hemming’s gift, the Confederate War Memorial, is the city’s oldest and tallest monument. It stands as a true testament to the dynamic man who lived 89 years in examplinary fashion. God Bless you, good friend, “Charley.”

PHOTOGRAPHS OF CHARLES HEMMINGS GRAVESITE WERE TAKEN BY WILL DEBOER, EVERGREEN CEMETERY MANAGER. MY SINCERE THANKS TO HIM FOR THIS ASSISTANCE.