Pieces of a Civil War statue pulverized by big rig in an Ohio township were reassembled. Now the old soldier is guiding efforts to build a new monument

The Sherman statue was reassembled piece by piece to serve as a guide (Photos Nicholas Fairplay)

English-born Nicholas Fairplay has carved gargoyles, lions and even the severed head of John the Baptist -- providing museum-quality creations to cathedrals and historic buildings around the world.

But it is the replica of a simple statue of a Civil War soldier that now has the attention of Fairchild, who has toiled for years in the Cleveland area.

A tractor trailer rig struck the monument in the rural village of LaGrange, Ohio, on June 28, 2022. The granite memorial, which was made up of several pieces, was shattered. Even the soldier's head was broken off.

The community’s spirit, however, was not squashed.

After finalizing a $923,244 settlement with the trucking company’s insurance company, LaGrange Township hired Fairplay and Cleveland Quarries to make new versions of the statue and other parts of the monument. (At left, the monument before its destruction, photo LaGrange Township)

They are working from the original statue -- painstakingly glued together by Fairplay and an assistant to use as a template for the new one. “We saved every shard of granite we could possibly pick up,” said LaGrange Township trustee Rita Canfield.

The township hopes the fixture at the intersection of routes 301 and 303 (Main Street) will be back up for Memorial Day 2025. That coincides with the 200^th anniversary of the township and the 150^th for the village. (They are separate political entities).

To say the Sherman monument, as locals call it, is vital to the area’s identity might be an understatement. It sits smack dab in the middle of the community, which has about 2,500 residents.

Fairplay says you can drive through LaGrange in about two minutes. “When you are at the statue in the middle, you drive an eighth of a mile, you are out of the town either way.”

The township is determined that the new Sherman is faithful to the old one in every way, from the pose and flag of the Federal soldier to the stacked blocks below him that feature battles and the names of area men who served and died in the war.

There was discussion on where to get the granite, with Georgia as an option. Forget that.

“The community said it could not get it from the South. They had to get it from the North,” said Canfield. The decision was to procure it again from a quarry in Vermont. Another operation in that state provided the stone for the original 1903 statue.

The piece was shattered into dozens of pieces, including its head (Photos LaGrange Township)

Fairplay told the Picket the Sherman monument was nicely done. He has worked on a couple other Civil War memorials.

“These little towns, when you go to them, it is shocking how many died,” he said.

The master carver is working in a studio at Cleveland Quarries, which is milling the soldier for carving by Fairplay. The company also is producing all the pieces below the figure at its operation in Vermilion.

“There has been a lot of surprise from people when they hear the monument would be rebuilt,” said Cleveland Quarries president Zach Carpenter. “They assume (that) after some of the controversy with different historical monuments in other parts of the country. We are very proud to be a part of this project and are extremely happy it is being returned to its original state.”

Nicholas Fairplay will work from this milled granite once it is complete (Cleveland Quarries)

Statue was turned around to face the South

The monument is owned by the township and is the center point of the village.

The base carried the names of LaGrange area residents who served during the Civil War, the names of a few battles and of Union generals Ulysses S. Grant, William T. Sherman, Philip Sheridan and George Thomas. Though the statue is not of Sherman – who was from Ohio – his name stuck.

The township points out that Sherman faced north for the first decade of his life. He was turned around, with the explanation that “a good solider never turned his back on the enemy.”

After the traffic accident, officials ensured that virtually every piece, down to chips, of the monument were stored so they could serve as a guide for the replica.

Before and after the truck crash that took out the monument, flagpole and more

Truckers often use Route 301 through town. A series of crashes, culminating with the loss of the soldier, prompted officials to place bright yellow metal poles – known as bollards – to warn motorists of the vulnerable circle.

Cleveland Quarries will donate large sandstone blocks to replace the bollards. “We are pretty confident if someone fails to stop, if they hit the couple tons they will come to a stop,” Canfield said in a bit of understatement.

There are aesthetic reasons, too, said Carpenter.

“In doing site visits, we thought would be far more attractive to have natural stones in place of the yellow bollards,” he said. “I personally am from a community very near LaGrange and wanted to be sure that the monument would look as best (as) possible when complete.”

One of the Civil War campaigns being noted in the new monument (Cleveland Quarries)

Canfield said the settlement will fund the monument, a new flagpole, lights and other infrastructure on the circle. “It could not be better spent. The insurance settlement was an attempt to make this community whole. We are not using taxpayer money,” she said.

They scanned original as guide to cutting block

While New Hampshire is known as the Granite State, its neighbor Vermont has plenty for sale.

Cleveland Quarries and Fairplay will work with Stanstead grey stone from Polycor. “We are part of an enduring Vermont industry centered in Barre, dating back to the period just after the War of 1812,” Polycor says on its website.

“The most challenging part of this project so far has been the size and weight of the granite. One of the blocks procured was well over 50,000 pounds at the start,” Carpenter said. “We had the blocks cut at the quarry and then had to cut them two more times in several cases to get the pieces required. While we have some of the largest CNC stone saws available certain parts of the project pushed our capacity to the limit.” (At right, Nicholas Fairplay shows off the reassembled statue. Photo LaGrange Township)

A 10,000-pound block of granite was shipped for the soldier’s statue. Incidentally, the design of the soldier came from a pattern used to produce similar pieces across the North.

Craftsmen used a wand to scan the glued-back soldier and that was projected into a computer. “They kind of stitched it together. They put it into a 3D model you can rotate,” said Fairplay.

Cleveland Quarries is milling the statue, using a router to cut out the basic form. Carpenter said he expects to finish that piece this week and have it ready for Fairplay to get to work. “It comes off like a blob,” said the carver.

From there, he and an assistant will use a pneumatic chisel to do the exacting details. It will take them several months, while Fairplay splits time with a project for the Hellenistic Preservation Society of Northeastern Ohio.

The benefits and risks of using granite

I asked Fairplay, 67, to extol the virtues of various stone used in carving larger pieces.

While marble is gorgeous, it has a hard time standing up to Ohio’s climate. Marble really needs to be inside.” Limestone, he says, is durable.

Granite is the most durable, being impervious to water. Carvers, however, crave a very fine form of the stone. “You can’t quite get as fine a detail as marble.” (At left, preparing to mount the head of the original Civil War statue. Photo Nicholas Fairplay)

“The granite tools are much blunter” and the material is not as forgiving, said Fairplay, who has plied the trade since he was 16. The dust from granite is carcinogenic so he and the assistant will be wearing a mask and using extraction fans.

The carver will work on the statue and crossed rifles on a block below.

Fairplay describes the soldier as having undersized feet and hands. “I think his legs are a little shorter for this height.”

“He is carved quite simple but (is) a heroic, nostalgic statue. It is not a Greek or Roman statue emphasizing portraiture.” The work will include the U.S. flag leaning out and a tree stump next to the right leg. “Most have tree stumps or drapery because the weight of the statue will not be (supported) by the ankles,” said Fairplay.

“The only tricky bit is the piercing between the hands and legs.”

Carver decries removal of Civil War monuments

The monument very much harkens the Victorian age of sentimentality and pride. “The eyes are done very deep,” Fairplay observed.

Canfield, the township trustee, says local folks strongly support veterans, including the display of honor wreaths and related events.

And Fairplay feels strongly about historic monuments, citing the removal of Civil War statues, mostly in the South.

“To lose that kind of history is a big mistake. I get really angry at them taking Confederate ones down, too. It is ridiculous.” He says art is an easy target.

As for Cleveland Quarries, craftsmen will ensure pieces are identical to the original. (At right, rubbings of the words on the monument to be used for replica stones. Photo LaGrange Township)

“Most important and detailed will be the list of names that was damaged,” said Carpenter. “We have already gone to great lengths to reassemble the broken pieces and cross reference historical documents to make sure the names will appear exactly as they did.”

As for the original Sherman once his replica is made? There’s talk of him being saved, perhaps on display somewhere.

Town outside Cleveland is moving forward with plans to replace Civil War monument smashed last year by tractor trailer

Shattered Sherman statue, including severed head, in storage (LaGrange Township)

Bright yellow poles – known as bollards – warn motorists in LaGrange, Ohio, to pay close attention as they approach the busy intersection of routes 301 and 303 (Main Street). They were put up after a series of crashes, including one that took out the downtown square’s Civil War monument in June 2022.

Residents are determined to replace the granite monument that was left in pieces, including the Union soldier’s severed head, when a truck barreled into it. Township officials want to use the same quarry that supplied the granite in the early 1900s.

“They want it restored to the original way,” says township administrator Vince Sigmund. “Everything was destroyed.”

Restoration won’t literally happen, because officials in this metro Cleveland and farm community determined that the damage to what locals call the Sherman monument was too severe for a repair.

Before and after the truck crash that took out monument, flagpole and more

“We have received three qualified bids to carve a new monument. Since the first monument was over 120 years old we cannot have the same company carve a new one,” LaGrange Township trustee Rita Canfield told the Picket in an email.

“We are not even certain who carved the original statue. … The cost of carving anew statue is simply shocking and we are insisting that the granite come from the same quarry that the first granite came from.”

Sigmund said the cost for a new monument and repairs for extensive damage to other parts of the square, including restoring lights that were taken out, could total $1.5 million.

Township officials are in active discussions with the insurance company for the trucking company involved in the accident and they expect a settlement.

Officials in LaGrange told the Picket that a big rig cruised through a stop sign at the circular intersection in the middle of the rural village on June 28, 2022. The stone memorial with a soldier on top was shattered and a flagpole was crushed.

An incident report from the Ohio State Highway Patrol said the driver told a responding officer that he fell asleep and ran a stop sign. The driver was not found to be impaired.

Canfield and fellow trustee Gary Burnett say the bollards at four spots on the traffic circle are meant to prevent accidents and protect the square.

“As you might imagine, this has been a major challenge for our community and we hope to have started the monument and settled with the insurance company by September of this year,” says Canfield.

Officials said it could take up two years to have the statue carved and installed, along with other repairs. For now, the shattered pieces, which weigh hundreds of pounds each, are stored in a township building.

The Sherman statue was erected in 1903 (some sources say 1904) for about $3,000. The project was a joint project of LaGrange Village and LaGrange Township, a separate political entity.

The monument is owned by the township and literally is the focal point of the village -- where the two main roads meet

The monument base carried the names of LaGrange area residents who served during the war, the names of a few battles and of Union generals Ulysses S. Grant, William T. Sherman, Philip Sheridan and George Thomas.

“I personally would like to put it back up. It is part of our identity in LaGrange,” Burnett said last summer. “Everyone feels a little connection to it.” (Photo above, sent by Burnett, last summer, shows crews removing monument pieces.)

The Sherman statue suffered indignity 65 years ago, according to a Lorain County nostalgia blog. A newspaper article in November 1957 said pranksters tarred and feathered the base.

Picket road trip: Elberton, Ga., museum features 'Dutchy,' a bizarre granite monument yanked down for looking like a Yankee

Fallen monument rests in a side room of an Elberton museum (Picket photos)

Until now, the only mention I’ve made in this blog about Elberton, Ga. -- the “Granite Capital of the World” -- was about a phone interview I had with a 92-year-old son of a Civil War veteran.

I still pinch myself that I spoke with Henry V. Booth back in 2011. It was hard to believe he was among a handful of people in that club of offspring still alive 150 years after the war.

His father, John Isham Booth, was a Confederate guard at Andersonville prison and fathered him in when he was 71.

So with that doozy, you’d think Elberton had gifted me enough.

Au contraire, my friends.

I traveled earlier this summer to the northeast Georgia city to see something that had escaped my notice all these years.

Oh, I’ve known about the importance of Elbert County to the granite world and its 40 quarries and scores of related businesses.

Most of its products -- particularly the blue-gray variety -- go for gravestones and other cemetery memorials. The industry employs a huge workforce and there are granite structures and signs throughout the area..

But until a couple weeks before my visit, I had near heard of “Dutchy” – the first monument made of Elberton granite. Dutchy, shall we say, turned out to be a one-off and the story for him did not end well.

But at least he is popular with tourists. Here's why.

Colorized photograph of the 1898 dedication (Elberton Granite Assn.)

The poor lad didn’t stand much of a chance when he was erected on the courthouse square in 1898 during the height of the Lost Cause narrative.

The short statue looked downright weird. The designer wrongly chiseled a Federal uniform and Dutchy had bulging eyes and a similarly cartoonish mustache. Critics dubbed him a “cross between a Pennsylvania Dutchman and a hippopotamus” – hence Dutchy.

Dutchy was an embarrassment for the town, and a group of inebriated young men in August 1900 finally took matters in their own hands.

A pithy article in the Elberton Star caught the mood of the citizenry.

"’Dutchy’ had been feeling badly for some time and looking really worse than he felt.  His looks didn't bother him, though. That was the public's trouble, but other causes troubled him.  He had a bad case of the gout, judging from the size of his legs and feet – and as he was compelled to wear a heavy United States army overcoat and heavy marching order – like Confederate soldiers didn't wear during the civil war – the hot weather got next to him."

The article playfully recounts how a keg of beer was rolled up, but Dutchy, obviously, could not get down to enjoy and cool off. Eventually, the heat got to him. Down came Dutchy with a thud, and the broken pieces were buried near the monument’s base the next day.

(He remained the most famous Elbert County granite monument until 1980, when the Georgie Guidestones were erected. Dubbed the “American Stonehenge,” the controversial monument was heavily damaged in a 2022 bombing. The remnants were removed.)

Bob Ward and his family have run Ward's Pharmacy for decades (Picket photo)

Bob Ward remembers the day in 1982 that Dutchy was unearthed so that he could be sent to the Elberton Granite Association museum, which opened the year before.

For three generations, the Ward family has operated a pharmacy on the square. Ward, 73, stood from the doorway during much of the excavation. “Lo and behold, there he was.”

After being put through a local car wash, Dutchy was trucked to the museum, where today he lies in repose in four pieces. The broken rifle stock is kept in the association’s office next door.

I have to admit Dutchy presents an odd sight, but he may being doing just fine. His eyes gaze pensively to the heavens as if he is being comforted. The rest of him is pretty sad,  lying on a cart above synthetic green grass.

You can take a piece of Dutchy's story home with you. The museum has a free pamphlet entitled "The Fall and Rise of Dutchy," and it features a history and photos of his better days and exhumation 80-plus years later.

Writer, curator and educator Rebecca Brantley wrote in 2018 of her own road trip to Elberton.

“The sculpture’s story is both eccentric and unsettling,” she wrote in Burnaway magazine. “It bears relevance in contemporary culture, given the ongoing problem of Confederate monuments in the South and the call to dismantle them.”

She repeats local lore that says the sculptor likely was a European immigrant who knew little about the war and proper uniforms.

The demise of Dutchy led Elberton to put up a new monument to Confederate dead that stands today on the same pedestal and cornerstone that held Dutchy. (Picket photo at left).

Ward believes he is made of metal instead of granite. Still, he told me, realism prevailed.

“We have one that looks like a Confederate soldier.”

Vandalized Gettysburg monument repaired

NPS photo

The Arm is back.

Seven years after it was vandalized, the 11^th Massachusetts Infantry monument at Gettysburg National Military Park was whole again Thursday.

Once the sword-swinging granite arm was placed on top of the pedestal, the staff attached the sword and hand guard, the park said in a press release.

To replicate the vandalized pieces, National Park Service specialist Brian Griffin studied historic photos – including those by Willliam H. Tipton -- and fragments of the arm, fingers and sword.

“Brian … got a perspective of distances, lengths and sizes,” said Lucas Flickinger, supervisor of the monument preservation branch at the battlefield. “It was pretty painstaking. There were two or three weeks of scaling from the photos.”

Griffin spent about three months on the clay modeling and made a plaster cast that was sent to Granite Industries of Vermont in 2012, which made the final product.

The monument near Emmitsburg Road is a bit unusual.

Rather than depicting a full figure, the monument depicts an upraised arm, poised to bring a sword down.

“I think it is a very powerful symbol of resolve,” Flickinger told the Civil War Picket.

Additionally, the 4^th New York Artillery (Smith’s Battery), and the 114^th Pennsylvania Infantry were vandalized on the same day in February 2006. The park previously repaired them.

Despite a $30,000 reward for information, no arrests or convictions have been made. 

• Read the Picket’s previous profile of the monument preservation branch at Gettysburg
• More photos of repaired monument