Visit Page
Skip to content

A Family Story

Posted in A Writer's Desk, and Research

StatueOfWisdom-regildedI'd like to introduce you to someone.

This is my great-grandmother, Clara Gasperov Mayerovich (Myers), as the Statue of Wisdom, freshly re-gilded in 2014, atop the Capitol Dome of the State of Maine, in Augusta.

(You can tell there has to be a good story behind this, right?)

Every now and then a family story is corroborated by external evidence. Clara and her husband Sam Myers left some things behind — newspaper articles and the work of their hands. And, of course, their descendents.

Samuel Nathan Mayerovich, first-born son of Nathan Meyerowitz, was born circa 1860 in Odessa, in the thriving Jewish community of that cosmopolitan city. The family stories that came down from my great-aunt Bertha, one of their daughters, remember a family that thought of themselves as native Odessans, and musicians were common.

Sam made the leap first, as so many Jews did, leaving the Russian Empire where strikes were disrupting life in the cities and arriving in Boston circa 1903, where he began a career as an artisan.

Clara stayed behind in Odessa with her three children (aged 9, 6, and 3 in 1905 — there would be two more later) and prepared to eventually join her husband. Bertha was the three-year-old, and the nine-year-old, Luzen, would become my grandfather, Louis Samuel Myers.

Perhaps you know what happened in Russia in 1905? In Odessa, a new wave of strikes began in sympathy with several cities, and the most important naval mutiny occurred, that of the Battleship Potemkin, in the port of Odessa, on June 27, 1905. (Which is really June 14, 1905 in the rest of the world, since Russia didn't convert from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar until 1918.)

The Massacre on the Odessa Steps (Battleship Potemkin (1925))
The Massacre on the Odessa Steps (Battleship Potemkin (1925))

Those of you who are cinéastes will remember Sergei Eisenstein's great silent movie, Battleship Potemkin (1925). Its most memorable scene is the segment entitled “The Odessa Steps.” In it, the civilians of the city who have brought food for the mutinying sailors, in sympathy with their actions, are standing on the great Primosky Stairs, which connect the city to the waterfront, when Cossacks march down in ranks to break up the assembly. If you haven't seen it, or don't remember it well, I invite you to watch. It's only 7.5 minutes. I'll wait.

In reality, there was no Czarist massacre on the Odessa Steps — that was Eisenstein's invention as a way to dramatize what is, essentially, a propaganda film — but there were plenty of massacres throughout the city.

I'll let Clara tell the story (though I imagine it was not in this studied reportorial English). Think of her as the woman confronting the Cossacks, above.


Woman Revolutionist Saw Odessa Burning (1905)

Boston Post (circa July 7, 1905)

Clara Mayorovich
Clara Mayorovich

Fresh from the horrors of the Odessa mutiny and uprising, Mrs. Clara Mayerovich, who arrived yesterday on the steamship Saxonia, said, that judging by the spirit of the populace, no reprisals will put down the revolution now brewing.

She was preparing, quite a while ago, to come to Boston and join her husband who left Odessa two years ago, and when disturbances began, with the safety of her three children in her mind, she fled without awaiting the events to follow.

“Ever since January last,” said Mrs. Mayerovich to a Boston Post reporter, “Odessa has been in a more or less turbulent state. People talked of nothing else but the revolution. But such was the belief in the omnipotence of the government and so deeply was the idea rooted within the minds of men and women, that even the most enthusiastic did not deny the remoteness of it.

“Meanwhile life was becoming harder and harder. Prices for necessities went sky-high, and when the daily demonstrations against the authorities, the bloody encounters between the police and the radicals, the incessant strikes and police brutality are added, one can well say that life was becoming unbearable.”

Hebrew Easter Massacre

“Easter came, and with it terror was stricken into the hearts of the Hebrew population. The police were openly agitating a Hebrew massacre, and were saying to the hungry strikers: ‘Don’t be fools; here is your chance; we’ll not only protect you, we’ll help you.’

“Then for the first time the awakening consciousness of the Russian workmen asserted itself, and the reply of one of the strikers’ leaders is so characteristic that I shall never forget it.

“He said: ‘We are striving to get out of darkness; you police hounds cannot and will not mislead us. If you do not know the cause of our misfortunes, let me tell you: it is you and the accursed system that makes you possible.’

“The striking workmen, as a whole, repudiated the police offers, and the consensus of replies was: ‘we wish you’d start one, we’d follow you and help the Jews to exterminate you, you vermin.’

“The ‘lozung’ was, and is: Give us justice; we demand our rights and did not want any mercy.

“Why, the man who shot and killed the chief of police in Odessa, who was sentenced to death by hanging, refused to sign the petition to the Czar, which, as the authorities assured him, would have been followed by a mitigation of his sentence.

“His words, ‘Mercy shown by tyrants is a degradation to the object of it,’ were embodied in a proclamation, and nightly crowds before the prison indulged in shouting their approval and encouragement till dispersed by mounted Cossacks.

“And then came the memorable day of June 26. Like an electric spark the news flew over the city, that a dead sailor, shot for complaining to his commander, was brought ashore, and a pilgrimage to the harbor by what seemed to be the entire population of Odessa commenced.

“The sight of this victim of indescribable brutality seemed to set a flame to the pent-up desire to get rid of the yoke of tyranny.

“From the balcony of the house I lived in, I could see the harbor, and before the dawn of another day, all the buildings, every structure, were either burned or destroyed.

“Oh, the terrors of that night and of the following days.

“Battles between soldiers and revolutionists were fought in every street. Bombs were thrown, tramway cars set afire, on every hand houses were burning.


How did Clara end up on the Capitol Dome in Augusta? That's her husband's story…

???????????????????????????????Samuel Myers worked as an artisan and contractor in Boston. Circa 1912, he designed  a 5 1/2 foot tall, 150-pound eagle covered in gold leaf for the top of the mast in Boston's Post Office Square Park, part of the Angell Memorial Fountain commemorating George Thorndike Angell.

In 1986, this eagle fell in a windstorm, crushing a wing and part of a head. It was restored in 1989.

 

EagleRestorationEagleRestored

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He produced other work, most notably an eagle somewhere in Harvard Yard, a copper boat somewhere at Phillips-Exeter Academy, and 600 copper boots to hang outside a national chain of shoe stores.

His masterwork, however, was the statue he created for the Capitol Dome. Here's the official story.

The great copper respousse statue that crowns the State House was designed, executed and given to the State of Maine by William Clark Noble.

The draped female figure that adorns the State Capitol building is perhaps best known to the Citizens of Maine. Although the Statue is commonly misreferenced as Athena, the Greek Goddess of Wisdom, or Minerva, the Italian Goddess of Arts and Crafts, the following account around the time of the 1909 enlargement of the Maine State House was recalled by the sculptor himself:

“I was spending some time in Boston, and happened into the office of Mr. Desmond, the architect, and noted, while looking over the plans for alteration of the Maine Capitol, that he had suggested a statue for the dome. In answer to my questions, he informed me that there was no appropriation made to pay for such a one as he would like to have, but informed me that the contractor would put some kind of figure in tin or zinc, pressed in halves and riveted together…”

CapitolDomeMr. Noble went to the contractor and interested him in a copper statue, making a gift of his time and skill. Working from a 10″ sketch model, he created a classic figure of a woman he named “Lady of Wisdom” with right arm rigidly upraised, close to the head, with torch in hand, Mr. Noble's conception of Augusta (the City), holding a pine torch (the State).

From this 10″ sketch model the large statue was made. The 12-foot high figure, 15 feet to the torch, was marked off in sections, the pieces brazed together with silver solder and the interior of the copper statue filled with hundreds of angle braces which make the work most rigid. It was then gilded and mounted, becoming one of the finest statues on any State Capitol in the United States.

Now, this is all very well, but what is omitted from this article is all the interesting detail. First of all, this was part of a large project, the expansion and dome for the building, and Sam Myers was the unnamed contractor in the above article. You'd think someone would remember his name.

StatueOfWisdom-closeup

 

What is never mentioned, anywhere, is the family story that Sam used Clara as his model for the statue. Noble may have made the 10″ sketch, but Sam Myers made the 15-foot statue.

 

 

In 1930 he took a road trip with his wife to see the statue in situ for the first time.

Wrought Statue for Maine Capitol Score Years Ago Sees It for First Time Sunday

Daily Kennebec Journal, Tuesday, June 17, 1930

Sam Myers came to Augusta yesterday to see his lady for the first time in the twenty years since her birth. To achieve the end toward which he had waited that score of years he climbed to the dome of the State House, and there beheld her, resplendent in a coat of glistening gold leaf, holding aloft a torch.

Moreover, Mr. Myers brought Mrs. Myers, for his “lady” is the Statue of Wisdom which overlooks the city from her vantage ground on the highest point of the Capitol.

Samuel N. Myers hammered out this beautiful work of art, which rests a-top the offices of Maine’s executives and legislators from 160 pounds of sheet copper, in the workshop of E. Van Norden Company of Roxbury, Massachusetts, in 1910. It was designed by W. Clark Noble, sculptor. For years he had wanted to come to Augusta, realized his desire only Sunday afternoon, but yesterday saw his “lady” and shook hands with Governor Gardiner.

RestoredStatueOfWisdom613 pieces of copper Mr. Myers made by hand to produce this statue which he classes as the best example of his work. It took eight weeks of continuous labor to complete the piece, although it is but fourteen and a half feet in height.

Mr. Myers was in charge of the construction of the other copper work which went into the Capitol Dome. Men worked with him making the doors, the windows, even the balustrade, the roofing and the walls of the dome itself, which look like granite from the ground below.

The statue and dome underwent extensive repairs and regilding in 2014, and my great-grandmother shines her eternal light of wisdom again.

My father Richard Myers had a distinct resemblance to his grandfather.
Clara and Sam Myers (1930). My father Richard Myers bore a distinct resemblance to his grandfather.

ADDENDA

Another picture, from preparation for the regilding. I like this one best. See NeverYetMelted, my husband's blog.

ClaraMaine-preRegild

 

My cousin, Sue Werlin, examining the restored eagle designed by her grandfather.

Eagle and Sue Werlin-trimmed

More about the family tree that resulted from this research.

Subscribe to My Newsletter

...and receive a free ebook: The Call, a short story that precedes the start of The Hounds of Annwn.

10 Comments

  1. Joanne Perriens
    Joanne Perriens

    I love your blog, Karen! And not only did your Dad bear a likeness to my grandfather Sam — our cousin, Lou Schlesinger, seems to me to be a dead ringer as well! I hope to learn more about your career as an author, too!

    March 28, 2015
    |Reply
  2. John Pierce
    John Pierce

    You got your dates mixed up. The mutiny on the Potemkin occurred June 27, 1905, which is the New Style date used by the rest of the world which followed the Gregorian calendar. The Old Style, or Julian, calendar in use in Russia at the time was 13 days behind the Gregorian calendar, thus the date of the mutiny would have been reported in Russia as having occurred June 14, 1905.

    March 29, 2015
    |Reply
    • You may be right, John, (see http://novaonline.nvcc.edu/eli/evans/his241/Notes/Calendar.html) but I have conflicting information. For example: http://www.historytoday.com/richard-cavendish/mutiny-potemkin

      The Potemkin was a new battleship of the Black Sea fleet, commissioned in 1903, with a crew of 800. It was not a happy ship and some of the crew harboured revolutionary sympathies, in particular a forceful young non-commissioned officer named Matyushenko, who took a leading part in what followed. At sea on June 14th (June 27th, Old Style), the cooks complained that the meat for the men’s borscht was riddled with maggots. The ship’s doctor took a look and decided that the maggots were only flies’ eggs and the meat was perfectly fit to eat. Later a deputation went and complained to the captain and his executive officer, Commander Giliarovsky, about worms in their soup. Their spokesman was a seaman named Valenchuk, who expressed himself in such plain language that Giliarovsky flew into a violent rage, pulled out a gun and shot him dead on the spot. The others seized Giliarovsky and threw him overboard. As he floundered in the water he was shot and killed. – See more at: http://www.historytoday.com/richard-cavendish/mutiny-potemkin#sthash.oUNHWTwd.dpuf

      There’s also the question of sailing times, from Odessa to Liverpool (without interruption?) and then Liverpool to Boston. That last leg was on the German ship Saxonia, whose manifest which includes Clara and her family is dated July 2, 1905. Transatlantic crossings in 1905 for Liverpool/New York averaged five days in 1905. Odessa to Liverpool ?? There doesn’t seem to be enough time for the Gregorian date to have been June 27. The manifest lists last residence as London, implying that she had to wait for the Saxonia, too.

      March 29, 2015
      |Reply
  3. RebeccaH
    RebeccaH

    What a wonderful story, and what a testament to America.

    March 29, 2015
    |Reply
  4. Robin
    Robin

    Hi there, Karen. Thank you for your very interesting post (recommended by my sister Joan). I am named after your great-grandmother Clara Gasperov Mayerovich (Myers), my great Aunt Clara. My parents always told me that the reason they chose to name me after two of my great aunts was because they were strong and formidable women. Your story bears that out.

    I had heard that one of our relatives had crafted the statue atop the Capitol Dome in Augusta. And so, many years ago my husband and I made a special trip to view and photograph her. I remember wondering why on earth we were bothering to do this. Little did I know that the statue atop the Capitol Dome of the State of Maine is a depiction of a formidable Jewish woman and that I bear her name!

    -Robin Carol (Gasperow) Van Riper

    July 3, 2015
    |Reply
  5. Jan Perriens
    Jan Perriens

    Next week Jeff Perriens (son of Joanne Perriens), and myself are going to Boston and will view the Eagle on top of the Angell Memorial Fountain, then drive to Maine to see the Statue of Wisdom. Also while we are there we are visiting Brookline, staying on Beacon Street where Jeff’s grandmother lived and Joanne grew up. Thank you for writing the Blog.

    July 19, 2017
    |Reply
  6. Karen L Myers
    Karen L Myers

    I was going through some of my family lore recently and found old news clips about Sam’s work, a copy of the Saxonia manifest listing Clara & the children, and an article entitled “Women Revolutionist Saw Odessa Burning” about Clara. I think Sam was my grandfather’s uncle. Grandpa Jack used to tell stories of working with Sam in their Lynn auto body shop in the 1920s. …. Karen Myers, Acton MA

    May 23, 2019
    |Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *