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Spanish–American War memorial · Dedicated September 5, 1927

Spanish War Veterans Memorial ("The Hiker")

Location
Garfield Square, east end (near 415 W. Market St.), Pottsville, PA
Dedicated
September 5, 1927
Designer / maker
Theo Alice Ruggles Kitson (sculptor) · Gorham Manufacturing Co. (foundry)
Status
Extant
Coordinates
40.6841, -76.19862 · Open in Maps

Standing alone at the east end of Garfield Square is a bronze figure of a Spanish-American War infantryman — a casting of the statue known as “The Hiker.” It honors the American servicemen of the War with Spain and the campaigns of 1898–1902 in Cuba, the Philippine Islands, and Puerto Rico. Veterans of those tropical marches nicknamed themselves “Hikers,” and the Pottsville base carries only the spare dedication: “Spanish War Veterans. 1898–1902. Cuba. Philippine Islands. Porto Rico. U.S.A.”

The Kitson “Hiker” and the Gorham castings

The figure is a cast of “The Hiker” by Theo Alice Ruggles Kitson (1871–1932) — in 1895 the first woman admitted to the National Sculpture Society. Kitson modeled the original for the University of Minnesota, where it was unveiled on Memorial Day 1906; it was based on a real Spanish-American War veteran, Leonard Sefing Jr. of Allentown, Pennsylvania. In 1921 the Gorham Manufacturing Company of Providence acquired the rights and, over four decades, cast at least 50 bronze copies erected across the country — making Kitson’s Hiker the de facto national memorial of that war. Four stand in Pennsylvania alone.

A note on attribution. The Historical Marker Database entry describes the Pottsville figure as rendered “in the style of Daniel Chester French.” That is a visual impression by the entry’s contributor, not a documented attribution; the established identification of the widely reproduced Hiker — including the Pennsylvania copies — is Kitson’s model cast by Gorham.

Dedication

The Pottsville Hiker was unveiled on Labor Day, Monday, September 5, 1927, following one of the city’s largest patriotic parades. That afternoon’s Pottsville Republican ran the front-page banner “Spanish War Veterans Unveiled Monument To Heroes Of ‘98.” It was erected by the Col. Theodore Hoffman Post, United Spanish War Veterans, with help from the Robert Woodbury Post of the American Legion, following a documented 1925 fundraising drive. The page-5 continuation records the order of ceremonies — an invocation by Captain John Reber of Schuylkill Haven, the unveiling of the figure (the page-5 text reads “Norman Farquhar”; the page-1 account garbles the surname in OCR, so treat it as provisional), wreath-laying by the Ladies’ Auxiliaries, and a principal address by Dr. J. L. Crawford, department commander of the U.S.W.V.

Notably, the local coverage never names a sculptor, foundry, or purchase price — exactly what one expects for a stock Gorham casting bought by a veterans’ post rather than an individually commissioned work, which corroborates the Kitson/Gorham identification.

Significance

The Hiker is historically interesting precisely because it is not unique: it represents an early-20th-century phenomenon in American commemoration, in which a single artist’s model, mass-produced by a commercial foundry, was adopted nationwide as a standardized memorial. Beside the 1891 Civil War monument at the square’s center, it lets Garfield Square narrate two successive eras of American military service in one landscaped space.

Sources

Frequently asked

Who made the Pottsville "Hiker"?
It is a cast of "The Hiker" by sculptor Theo Alice Ruggles Kitson, modeled in 1906 for the University of Minnesota. From 1921 the Gorham Manufacturing Company cast at least 50 copies nationwide, making it the de facto national memorial of the Spanish-American War; four stand in Pennsylvania (Pottsville, Allentown, Shamokin, Lebanon).
When was the Pottsville casting unveiled?
On Labor Day, Monday, September 5, 1927, in Garfield Square, erected by the Col. Theodore Hoffman Post, United Spanish War Veterans, as reported on the front page of that afternoon's Pottsville Republican.

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