Virginia Cookbook Author Mary Randolph 1762-1828

Biography of Virginia Cookbook Author Mary Randolph 1762-1828

Lilly Martin Spencer (American artist, 1822–1902) The Young Wife First Stew

Mary Randolph was born in Virginia, the daughter of Anne Cary and Thomas Mann Randolph, a legislator and wealthy plantation owner. Her tombstone lists Ampthill, her mother's family home near Richmond, as her birthplace, though some genealogists believe she may have been born at her father's plantation called "Tuckahoe," in Goochland County. The oldest of thirteen children, "Molly," as she was called, grew up among southern aristocracy. Her father (1741 - 1793), orphaned at infancy, was raised by Thomas Jefferson's parents; the Randolphs were distant cousins of the Jeffersons, and the families saw each other often. Her father served Virginia in the colonial house of burgesses, the Revolutionary conventions of 1775 and 1776, and later in the state legislature. Her mother was the daughter of Archibald Cary, plantation owner and statesman. Her brother, Thomas Mann Randolph, became a Congressman and governor of Virginia and married Martha Jefferson, daughter of Thomas Jefferson.

Mary Randolph's education consisted of reading, writing, arithmetic, training in the household arts, and lessons in dancing, music, and drawing. In December 1780, at age eighteen, Randolph was married to a first cousin once removed named David Meade Randolph (1760 - 1830), a revolutionary war officer and tobacco planter. They settled at Randolph's James River plantation called "Presqu'Ile" in Chesterfield County, and the couple had eight children, four of whom lived to adulthood. Around 1795 President George Washington appointed David Randolph the U.S. marshal of Virginia (a federal court official), and the couple moved to Richmond. There, at the turn of the century, the Randolphs built Moldavia, an elegant residence named after the two of them. They held sparkling social gatherings that quickly made Mary Randolph a celebrated hostess, known for her well-set table and her knowledge of cooking. David Randolph, however, was a champion of Federalism and an open critic of Thomas Jefferson. President Jefferson removed Randolph from his post in 1801, and the Randolph family was forced to sell Moldavia and many of their plantation lands as a result of their declining fortunes.

Eventually, in 1807, Mary Randolph opened a tasteful boardinghouse in Richmond to supplement their income. At the time, boardinghouses were particularly popular in cities, where large numbers of workers and visitors were in need of meals and lodging. Restaurants barely existed at the time. Randolph's boardinghouse was known as "the Queen," after the name her boarders gave her. It was one of the most popular places in Richmond. As chronicler Samuel Mordecai attests in 1856, "There were few more festive boards . . .Wit, humor and good-fellowship prevailed, but excess rarely." They closed the boardinghouse in 1820 and moved to Washington D.C. In 1824, just four years before her death, Randolph published her one and only cookbook, The Virginia Housewife. She writes in the Preface: The greater part of the following receipts have been written from memory, where they were impressed by long continued practice. Should they prove serviceable to the young inexperienced housekeeper, it will add greatly to that gratification which an extensive circulation of the work will be likely to confer.

Randolph's hope for success was fully realized. A second edition was published in 1825, and it was often republished - in Baltimore in 1831 and 1838, in Philadelphia in 1850, and at least nineteen editions before the outbreak of the Civil War. Replacing English cookbooks which until then were the standard in America, The Virginia Housewife became the most influential American cookbook of the nineteenth century. Practical and specific in weights and measures, it was simpler to follow than English cookbooks. Broad in its range of recipes, it called on the bounty of Virginia's pastures, fields, waterways and woods, revealing the remarkable variety of fruits, vegetables, herbs, berries, meats, wild game and fish of that place and time, matched only by the author's remarkably varied and masterful methods of preparation. Not surprisingly, the book's regional emphasis made it especially popular in the South, where every Virginia housewife, according to a later writer, Letitia Burwell, "knew how to compound all the various dishes in Mrs. Randolph's cookery book."

Mary Randolph lived for less than 4 years after the first publication of her cookbook. She was caring for an invalid son near the time of her death, which may have taxed her emotions and strength, for her gravestone describes her as "a victim of maternal love and duty." According to her wishes, she was buried at Arlington, the home of her cousin George Washington Parke Custis, stepson of George Washington and father of Mary Custis (Mrs. Robert E.) Lee. This final detail of her life reflects what historian Karen Hess points out, in her introduction to a facsimile of the 1824 edition: So it can be seen that, in addition to her culinary prowess, nobody was more qualified by reason of family and social milieu to record the cookery of Virginia, the home of so many of our founding fathers, and of our nation's capital as well, in those early days.

From the Historic American Cookbook Project: Feeding America

Sources
Keene, Ann T., American National Biography. Vol. 20. Eds. John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes. New York: Oxford, 1999.

Randolph, Mary. The Virginia Housewife: or Methodical Cook. Baltimore: Plaskitt, Fite, 1838.

----The Virginia House-Wife. With introduction by Karen Hess. Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press, 1985.

----The Virginia Housewife: or Methodical Cook. With introduction by Janice Bluestein Longone. Mineola, New York: Dover Publications, 1993.

Rutledge, Anna Wells, Notable American Women 1607 - 1950: A Biographical Dictionary. Eds. Edward James, Janet James, Paul Boyer. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1971.

Cookbook from Mary Randolph 1762-1828

The Virginia Housewife: or, Methodical Cook
By Mary Randolph 1762-1828
Baltimore: Plaskitt, Fite, 1838 (1838)

Lilly Martin Spencer (American artist, 1822–1902) The Young Wife First Stew

This is considered by some to be the first truly American cookbook and by all to be the first regional American cookbook. This work is still in print and still forms the basis of traditional Virginia cooking. It has been praised by many culinary authorities both for its delineation of authentic Virginia foods and its careful attention to detail.

Upon its first appearance in 1824 it was an immediate success and it was republished at least nineteen times before the outbreak of the Civil War. In addition, copies appeared in the late nineteenth century and modern Southern authors aften reference it.

By the last publication dates of this book, methods of cooking were changing greatly. The invention of canning technology meant that all sorts of produce - such as carrots, soup, vegetable stew - could be preserved without being salted or pickled. Progress in glass technology led to the improvement of microscopes; this in turn brought about the discovery of bacteria, leading to advances in medicine and food preservation, and to a greater awareness of food hygiene.

The activities inside the Victorian kitchen were also transformed. Designers pateneted new state-of-the-art ovens that enabled cooks to control temperatures using a complex system of flues and metal plates. Now the middle class cook could prepare the complicated meals and delicate dishes that were previously reserved for the wealthy owners of grand kitchens. Cast iron and tin-plated equipment replaced brass and copper. Kitchens became cluttered with mass-produced implements such as pastry cutters, jelly moulds, pie moulds and biscuit tins. The Victorians also introduced a whole array of nifty gadgets: graters, potato peelers, mincers, and bean slicers.

Anyone who doubts that early Americans savored salads and vegetables need only look at what Mrs. Randolph offers. There are recipes for artichokes, asparagus, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, celery, cucumbers, eggplant, French beans, Jerusalem artichokes, lima beans, mushrooms, onions, parsnips, peas, peppers, potatoes, potato pumpkin, red beet roots, salsify, savoy cabbage, sea kale, sorrel, spinach, sprouts and young greens, squash, sweet potatoes, turnips, turnip tops, winter squash, onions, and tomatoes.

Indeed, Mrs. Randolph has seventeen recipes using tomatoes in the various editions of her cookbook. This provides further evidence to correct the misinformation that Americans did not use tomatoes prior to the mid-nineteenth century.

From the Historic American Cookbook Project: Feeding America
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John Adams Moves into the White House, Abigail Soon Follows

 President John Adams, in the last year of his only term as president, moved into the newly constructed President's House, the original name for what is known today as the White House. Adams had been living in temporary digs at Tunnicliffe's City Hotel near the half-finished Capitol building since June 1800, when the federal government was moved from Philadelphia to the new capital city of Washington, D.C.
John Adams was President from 1797-1801 Portrait by John Trumbull 1792-3

In his biography of Adams, historian David McCullough recorded that when Adams first arrived in Washington, he wrote to his wife Abigail, at their home in Quincy, Massachusetts, that he was pleased with the new site for the federal government and had explored the soon-to-be President's House with satisfaction.

Although workmen had rushed to finish plastering and painting walls before Adams returned to D.C. from a visit to Quincy in late October, construction remained unfinished when Adams rolled up in his carriage on November 1.

However, the Adams' furniture from their Philadelphia home was in place and a portrait of George Washington was already hanging in one room. The next day, Adams sent a note to Abigail, who would arrive in Washington later that month, saying that he hoped "none but honest and wise men [shall] ever rule under this roof."

Abigail Adams painted by Gilbert Stuart

Although Adams was initially enthusiastic about the presidential mansion, he & Abigail soon found it to be cold and damp during the winter. Abigail, in a letter to a friend, wrote that the building was tolerable only so long as fires were lit in every room. She also noted that she had to hang their washing in an empty "audience room" (the current East Room).

John & Abigail Adams lived in what she called "the great castle" for only 5 months. Shortly after they moved in, Thomas Jefferson defeated Adams in his bid for re-election. Abigail was happy to leave Washington, and departed in February 1801 for Quincy. As Jefferson was being sworn in on March 4, 1801, John Adams was already on his way back to Massachusetts, where he & Abigail lived out the rest of their days at their family farm.

1803 White House by Nicholas King in the Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

1862, Ida B. Wells born in Mississippi

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Ida B. Wells-Barnett, an African American journalist, newspaper editor, & early leader in the civil rights movement, born in  early in the Civil War in1862.

 Ida B. Wells-Barnett, anti-lynching crusader, suffragist, women’s rights advocate, journalist, & speaker, was born in Holly Springs, Mississippi, to James & Elizabeth "Lizzie" Bell (Warrenton) Wells, the daughter of a Native American father & slave mother.  She died in Chicago, Illinois 1931, at the age of 69.

After emancipation, Lizzie & James continued to work for their former owners as a cook & carpenter respectively. When Ida was only 14, a tragic epidemic of Yellow Fever swept through Holly Springs killing her parents & youngest sibling.

The oldest in a family of 4 boys & 4 girls, Ida acquired from her parents a love of self-sufficiency that characterized her life. She kept the family together by securing a job teaching by passing the Mississippi teachers' exam & teaching  briefly in Holly Springs.

 She managed to continue her education by attending near-by Rust College. She attended Shaw University (later Rust College) in Holly Springs, &, after her move to Memphis,Tennessee, she attended summer sessions at Nashville's Fisk University.

In the early 1880s, she moved to Memphis & taught in the rural schools of Shelby County while preparing for the teachers' exam for the Negro public schools of Memphis. She lived with her aunt who helped raise her youngest sisters.

It was in Memphis, where she first began to fight (literally) for racial & gender justice. In 1884, she was asked by the conductor of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad Company to give up her seat on the train to a white man & ordered her into the smoking or “Jim Crow” car, which was already crowded with other passengers. Despite the 1875 Civil Rights Act banning discrimination on the basis of race, creed, or color, in theaters, hotels, transports, & other public accommodations, several railroad companies defied this congressional mandate & racially segregated its passengers. It is important to realize that her defiant act was before Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), the U.S. Supreme Court decision that established the fallacious doctrine of “separate but equal,” which constitutionalized racial segregation.

Wells wrote in her autobiography: "I refused, saying that the forward car [closest to the locomotive] was a smoker, & as I was in the ladies’ car, I proposed to stay. . . [The conductor] tried to drag me out of the seat, but the moment he caught hold of my arm I fastened my teeth in the back of his hand. I had braced my feet against the seat in front & was holding to the back, & as he had already been badly bitten he didn’t try it again by himself. He went forward & got the baggageman & another man to help him & of course they succeeded in dragging me out.

Wells was forcefully removed from the train & the other passengers–all whites–applauded. When Wells returned to Memphis, she immediately hired an attorney to sue the railroad. She won her case in the local circuit courts, but the railroad company appealed to the Supreme Court of Tennessee, & it reversed the lower court’s ruling. This was the first of many struggles Wells engaged, & from that moment forward, she worked tirelessly & fearlessly to overturn injustices against women & people of color.

Her suit against the railroad company also sparked her career as a journalist. Many papers wanted to hear about the experiences of the 25-year-old school teacher who stood up against white supremacy. Her writing career blossomed in papers geared to African American & Christian audiences.

 In 1889, Wells became a partner in the newspaper Free Speech & Headlight. The paper was also owned by Rev. R. Nightingale– the pastor of Beale Street Baptist Church. He “counseled” his large congregation to subscribe to the paper, & it flourished, allowing her to leave her position as an educator.

In 1892, three of her friends were lynched. Thomas Moss, Calvin McDowell, & Henry Stewart. These three men were owners of People’s Grocery Company, & their small grocery had taken away customers from competing white businesses. A group of angry white men thought they would “eliminate” the competition so they attacked People’s grocery, but the owners fought back, shooting one of the attackers. The owners of People’s Grocery were arrested, but a lynch-mob broke into the jail, dragged them away from town, & brutally murdered all three.

Again, this atrocity galvanized her mettle. She wrote in The Free Speech:
"The city of Memphis has demonstrated that neither character nor standing avails the Negro if he dares to protect himself against the white man or become his rival. There is nothing we can do about the lynching now, as we are out-numbered & without arms. The white mob could help itself to ammunition without pay, but the order is rigidly enforced against the selling of guns to Negroes. There is therefore only one thing left to do; save our money & leave a town which will neither protect our lives & property, nor give us a fair trial in the courts, but takes us out & murders us in cold blood when accused by white persons."

Many people took the advice Wells penned in her paper & left town; other members of the Black community organized a boycott of white owned business to try to stem the terror of lynchings. Her newspaper office was destroyed as a result of the muckraking & investigative journalism she pursued after the killing of her three friends.

She could not return to Memphis, so she moved to Chicago. She however continued her blistering journalistic attacks on Southern injustices, being especially active in investigating & exposing the fraudulent “reasons” given to lynch Black men, which by now had become a common occurrence.

In Chicago, she helped develop numerous African American women & reform organizations, but she remained diligent in her anti-lynching crusade, writing Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases.

She also became a tireless worker for women’s suffrage, & happened to march in the famous 1913 march for universal suffrage in Washington, D.C. Not able to tolerate injustice of any kind, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, along with Jane Addams, successfully blocked the establishment of segregated schools in Chicago.

Her crusade gaining momentum, Wells toured Great Britain in 1893 and 1894, speaking in packed churches & lecture halls. The "sweet-faced" orator spoke with "singular refinement, dignity and self-restraint," wrote a London observer. "Nor have I ever met any agitator so cautious and unimpassioned in speech. But by this marvelous self-restraint itself, she moved us all the more profoundly."

In 1895, Wells married the editor of one of Chicago’s early Black newspapers. In 1881, she accepted a better-paying teaching position in Woodstock, Tennessee, even as she dreamed of a more exciting career as a "journalist, physician or actress." She studied elocution and drama at Fisk University in Nashville-training that must have proved helpful when she later took to the lecture circuit.

She was 32 & already a noted journalist & activist, when she married.  Frederick Douglass had recruited Wells and Ferdinand Lee Barnett, a prosperous black attorney and publisher of The Conservator newspaper in Chicago, to help write a pamphlet protesting the exclusion of black participants from the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago.

Barnett, as militant as Wells, was once jailed for telling an audience that America was a "dirty rag" if it didn't protect all of its citizens. A widower with two sons, Barnett soon proposed to Wells, who eventually agreed to marry him. She persuaded Barnett, who was busy with his legal work, to sell The Conservator to her. Journalism, she later wrote in her autobiography, "was my first, and might be said, my only love." A few days after the wedding, Wells took charge of the newspaper.

Typically ahead of her time, the new bride adopted a hyphenated last name, Wells-Barnett. The couple had two daughters and two sons. For Wells, as for many career women, balancing work and family was a challenge. Her friend, suffrage leader (and spinster Susan B. Anthony, chided Wells that "since you have gotten married, agitation seems practically to have ceased."

She wrote: “I was married in the city of Chicago to Attorney F. L. Barnett, & retired to what I thought was the privacy of a home.” She did not stay retired long & continued writing & organizing. In 1906, she joined with William E.B. DuBois & others to further the Niagara Movement, & she was one of two African American women to sign “the call” to form the NAACP in 1909.

Although Ida B. Wells was one of the founding members of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), she was also among the few Black leaders to explicitly oppose Booker T. Washington & his strategies. As a result, she was viewed as one the most radical of the so-called “radicals” who organized the NAACP & marginalized from positions within its leadership.

As late as 1930, she became disgusted by the nominees of the major parties to the state legislature, so Wells-Barnett decided to run for the Illinois State legislature, which made her one of the first Black women to run for public office in the United States. A year later, she passed away after a lifetime crusading for justice.

(Sources: duke.edu & http://www.todayinwomenshistory.com)

Maria Martin Bachman (1796-1863) & John James Audubon (1785-1851)

Maria Martin Bachman  1796-1863

 See Charleston County Public Library

Maria Martin Bachman of Charleston, South Carolina, may well have been the most influential woman on the American 19C natural history horizon. Her life changed forever on October 16, 1831, the day John James Audubon joined the family of her brother-in-law & future husband, John Bachman, at their residence on Rutledge Avenue. The 35 year old spinster could not have foreseen that Audubon would awaken in her a talent as a painter she did not know she possessed. Her paintings & watercolor drawings of birds, flowers & insects would later appear in the 2nd & 4th volumes of the Elephant Folio of Audubon's The Birds of America. Of the 435 pictures in this great work, more than 50 contain drawings of insects as well as birds.

Little is known about Maria's early years, as many records were destroyed by Sherman's March through the South. Maria was born July 6, 1796, the youngest of 2 daughters of Rebecca Solars & Jacob Martin. Her father's family forebears were French Huguenots who left France after the Edict of Nantes in 1685 & migrated to Switzerland & Bavaria before coming to the United States. Her great-grandfather, George Martin, arrived in America in 1750 & fathered 12 sons. John Nicholas Martin, Maria's grandfather, was ordained a Lutheran minister, & in November 1763, became the pastor of St. John's Lutheran Church in Charleston. Fifty-two years later on January 10, 1815, a young Lutheran clergyman & naturalist, John Bachman, arrived in Charleston from Schaghticoke, New York, to serve as the new pastor of St. John's Lutheran Church. Bachman took Harriet Martin-Maria's older sister--as his bride a year later.

Maria & her sister Harriet, daughters of John Jacob Martin, were well educated for their time. John's marriage to the widow Rebecca Solar, had provided his family with a decent dower that he nurtured into a fortune. Their daughters either attended a seminary for young ladies or were tutored at home. Judging from Maria's letters, she was a person well-read in classical literature, music, French, & the natural sciences, & she had taken drawing lessons. As the youngest daughter, Maria joined the Bachman household to take on the the task of caring for her ailing sister & the Bachman's 8 children at the time of Audubon's arrival in Charleston.

Audubon brought into the Bachman family's household a sense that life is exciting & filled with fascinating experiences that stretch a person's mind & heart. Maria, her sister Harriet, the children & the servants were all caught up in Bachman's & Audubon's adventures in the fields surrounding Charleston, eager to show this or that valuable bird they had shot or that Audubon had sketched. Perhaps it was mere politeness that prompted Audubon to offer Maria a pencil & suggest that she draw a bird, but when he quickly saw she had talent, he encouraged & instructed her, keeping her well supplied with painting materials. In the summer while Audubon had gone north, Maria, at his suggestion, began to draw flowers. Wrote Dr. Bachman to Audubon, "Maria has figured for you the white hibiscus & also a red one, both natives & beautiful; a suanymus in seed in which our Sylvia is placed; the white nondescript rose; the gordonia, a begonia, etc." The result was Audubon begged for more of her flower paintings. He was, he assured Bachman, "extremely desirous of introducing them in my second volume."

After John James Audubon began using Maria's flower backgrounds for his bird paintings, Maria sought to widen her knowledge of insect life so she could paint butterflies, moths & caterpillars for Audubon's paintings. She began by copying nearly all of the illustrations by Peale, Le Sueur & others in Thomas Say's The Entomology of North America. Only 6 out of her 54 copies of Say's plates are missing - destroyed when Lucy Audubon's cottage burned to the ground in 1875. Two of Maria's sketchbooks which appear to date between 1833 & 1836 are located in the Archives of the Charleston Museum. They contain her copies of Say's plates & 27 of her originals.

Maria's study of Say's illustrations represents an important link to Audubon, but also to the new field of entomology in North America. Audubon's experiences as a taxidermist at the Western Museum in Cinncinnati, & his acquaintance with T.R. Peale & Thomas Say upon their visit there after their Western expedition, touched upon insects & Peale's drawings of them for Say's projected book -American Entomology. What this small coterie shared in common was an understanding that the winged brethren, going about their business, are largely on the lookout for insects.

Audubon's portraits of birds from the beginning included beetles, caterpillars, worms, spiders, flies, & other natural quarry which set his work apart from other bird painters. He paid Maria Martin the ultimate compliment when he wrote his son Victor from Charleston, December 23, 1833, "Miss Martin with her superior talents, assists us greatly in the way of drawing; the insects she has drawn are, perhaps, the best I've seen."

John James Audubon 1785-1851 Timeline

See PBS July 25th, 2007 

John James Audubon (1785-1851)

1785 Born in Les Cayes, Saint-Domingue (later Haiti) to Captain Jean Audubon and Jeanne Rabine, his French chambermaid

1788 Sent to Nantes, France. Enjoys childhood here, begins interest in the natural world

1803 Leaves France for the United States to avoid conscription in Napoleon’s army. Moves to Mill Grove, his father’s estate in Pennsylvania

1804 Meets and falls in love with Lucy Bakewell, daughter of neighbor William Bakewell in Mill Grove. Creates wire constructions that help him pose dead birds in lifelike positions to paint them.

1807 Sets up general store in Louisville, KY

1808 Marries Lucy Bakewell and moves with her to Louisville.

1809 Son Victor born

1810 Meets ornithologist Alexander Wilson, and declines to subscribe to his publication, American Ornithology. Moves to Henderson, KY with family.

1812 Son John Woodhouse born

1815 Daughter Lucy born

1816 Invests in steam-powered grist mill in Henderson.

1817 Daughter Lucy dies

1819 Samuel Adams Bowen attacks Audubon on the street; Audubon stabs him in self-defense. Business fails. Jailed for debt; released when he files for bankruptcy. Family loses all possessions. Daughter Rose is born.

1820 Daughter Rose dies. States intention to complete, in his lifetime, “a collection of the Birds of our Country, from Nature, all of Natural Size”.

1821 Arrives in New Orleans and begins portrait painting on the street. Wife and sons join him in December.

1824 Attempts to obtain support from the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia for a publication of his engravings of American birds. Opposed by George Ord, editor of American Ornithology by Alexander Wilson.

1826 Leaves for England. Gains success quickly. Exhibits 250 paintings at the Royal Institution at Liverpool, Manchester, and Edinburgh. Meets William Home Lizars, who agrees to become Audubon’s engraver.

1827 Hires London’s Havell & Son to work on Double elephant Folio etchings.

1829 Returns to America to paint more American birds and convince Lucy to join him in England.

1830 Dines at the White House with President Andrew Jackson.

1831 Publishes first volume of Ornithological Biography.

1833 Travels to Labrador to paint northern bird species.

1838 Fourth and final volume of the Folio edition of Birds of America is completed.

1839 Leaves England for good to settle in New York with Lucy. Begins planning for The Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America.

1840 Begins work on octavo edition of The Birds of America.

1841 Purchases Minnie’s Land, a 30 acre estate in Upper Manhattan.

1843 Travels west to search for new specimens for Quadrupeds.

1845 First Imperial Folio volume of The Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America is published.

1848 Suffers stroke. Eyesight has now failed and son John Woodhouse has taken over work on Quadrupeds project. Audubon begins to go senile.

1851 Dies at Minnie’s Land on January 27.

Rev. John Bachman 1790-1874 Timeline

See JohnBachman.org

1754  Aboard the ship Barclay, Pastor Johann Nicholas Martin arrives at the port of Philadelphia from Germany with family (14 Sep); soon moves to churches in Anson County NC and later in Columbia SC (Dutch Fork) area

1763  Johann Nicholas Martin answers call to pulpit of a church to be named St. John's Lutheran Church, Charleston SC

1785  John James Audubon born, Les Cayes, Santo Domingo (present-day Haiti) (26 Apr)

1790  John Bachman born, Rhinebeck NY (4 Feb), son of Jacob & Eva Shop Bachman

1791  Harriet Martin born, Charleston SC (10 Aug)

1796  Maria Martin born, Charleston SC (3 Jul)

1802  Young Bachman moves from New York to Philadelphia to continue schooling

1804  Bachman begins visiting John Bartram's garden and meets bird artist Alexander Wilson (approximate date)

1806  Bachman shows signs of respiratory problems, leaves school in Philadelphia and returns to parents' New York home; stays in bed for about 18 months, nursed by his mother

1808  Bachman's strength and health return

1808  Bachman moves in with Pastor Anthony T. Braun in West Sandlake NY to commence religious studies

1808  John James Audubon weds Lucy Green Bakewell (5 Apr)

1809  Victor Gifford Audubon born to John James & Lucy Audubon (12 Jun)

1812  John Woodhouse Audubon born to John James & Lucy Audubon (30 Nov)

1813  Alexander Wilson dies shortly after publishing 7th volume of American Ornithology (Aug)

1813  Bachman licensed to preach in Lutheran churches, Philadelphia PA

1815  Bachman arrives in Charleston (10 Jan) and assumes pastorate at St. John's (12 Jan); serves for 56 years

1816  Bachman marries Charleston's Harriet Martin (23 Jan), granddaughter of the Rev. John Nicolas Martin, former pastor of St. John's

1831  Bachman hosts John James Audubon for a month at Bachman's Rutledge Avenue home during the artist's trip to Charleston (beginning 17 Oct)

1831  Bachman's sister-in-law Maria Martin becomes John James Audubon's assistant and begins to contribute paintings of backgrounds, insects, plants, etc., used in Audubon's Birds of North America

1832  Audubon returns to Bachman home in Charleston after a scouting trip to Florida (10 Mar)

1833  Bachman helps found South Carolina State Horticultural Society

1837  John Woodhouse Audubon marries Maria "Ria" Rebecca Bachman (June); they produce 2 daughters

1838  Bachman arrives (1 Jul) in Liverpool, England, to news that Lucy Green Audubon had been born to John Woodhouse and Maria Rebecca Bachman Audubon while he was at sea; moves in with John James Audubon and family.

1840  Bachman & John James Audubon begin work on Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America

1840  Maria Rebecca Bachman Audubon dies of tuberculosis at age 23 (15 Sep); buried at St. John's Lutheran Church

1841  Mary Eliza Bachman Audubon dies in New York at age 22 (25 May)

1845  Bachman & John James Audubon publish first of three Imperial folios (without text) of Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America

1846  Bachman's first wife Harriet Martin Bachman dies after 30 years of marriage and 14 children, nine of whom survived

1848  Bachman marries his sister-in-law, Maria Martin; they have no children

1848  Bachman becomes professor of natural history at College of Charleston; serves until 1853 when he steps down to devote more time to ministry

1849  Bachman & John James Audubon publish first Royal Octavo volume of Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America

1851  John James Audubon dies, New York City, at age 64 (27 Jan)

1853  Bachman publishes A Defense of Luther and the Reformation

1854  Bachman, with help of Audubon sons, publishes 3rd and final text volume of Imperial folio for Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America

1854  Bachman publishes Notice of the Types of Mankind by Nott and Gliddon

1855  Bachman publishes Examination of Professor Agassiz’s Sketch of the Natural Provinces of the Animal World

1856  Under petition from Bachman and others, State of South Carolina charters Newberry College (20 Dec)

1857  Newberry College board of trustees holds first meeting; Bachman elected as first board president (15 Jan); next day authorizes $2,300 for purchase of 54 acres of land for the campus

1859  Newberry College begins operations with more than 100 students (6 in college, 2 in seminary, and the remainder in an all-male preparatory school)

1860  Bachman begins serving as co-editor of Southern Lutheran; continues until 1862

1860  Bachman leads opening prayer at Institute Hall in Charleston as South Carolina meets to vote for secession (20 Dec)

1861  Confederate forces fire on Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor (12 Apr)

1863  Maria Martin Bachman dies (18 Dec)

1871  Bachman retires as pastor of St. John's Lutheran Church after 56 years, but continues to preach

1874  John Bachman dies of paralysis in Charleston SC, age 84 years, 20 days (24 Feb)

New Hampshire Christian Science Founder, Mary Baker Eddy d. 12/3/1910

Mary Baker Eddy, born on July 16, 1821 in Bow, New Hampshire, founded of the Christian Science movement. Deeply religious, she advocated Christian Science as a spiritual practical solution to health and moral issues. She wrote Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures; founded The First Church of Christ, Scientist of Boston in 1879; and conceived several periodicals including The Christian Science Monitor.
Starting at the age of 8, little Mary began to hear voices calling her name and would go to her mother only to be told she had not been called. In her autobiography, Eddy explained: "One day when my cousin, Mehitable Huntoon, was visiting us, and I sat in a little chair by her side, in the same room with grandmother, — the call again came, so loud that Mehitable heard it, though I had ceased to notice it. Greatly surprised, my cousin turned to me and said, 'Your mother is calling you!' Mary responded to the voice with the phrase from Samuel 'Speak, Lord; for Thy servant heareth.' When the call came again I did answer, in the words of Samuel, but never again to the material senses was that mysterious call repeated...

"My mother, as she bathed my burning temples, bade me lean on God's love, which would give me rest if I went to Him in prayer, as I was wont to do, seeking His guidance. I prayed; and a soft glow of ineffable joy came over me. The fever was gone and I rose and dressed myself in a normal condition of health. Mother saw this and was glad. The physician marveled; and the 'horrible decree' of Predestination — as John Calvin rightly called his own tenet — forever lost its power over me."

She became convinced that illness could be healed through a clearer perception of God and the explicit rejection of doctors, hygiene, and medicines based upon her reading of the Bible, where Jesus did not need these suspicious modern-day innovations for healing: "It is plain that God does not employ drugs or hygiene, nor provide them for human use; else Jesus would have recommended and employed them in his healing."

Nearly 90, Mary Baker Eddy died on December 3, 1910 at her home at 400 Beacon Street, in the Chestnut Hill section of Newton, Massachusetts.

Etiquette for American Ladies 1840 - On Carrying Calling Cards

Etiquette for Ladies: With Hints on the Preservation, Improvement, and Display of Female Beauty. Published by Lea and Blanchard, Philadelphia. 1838-1840

After making one's toilette with care, visitors should furnish themselves with cards.

Gentlemen ought simply to put their cards into their pocket, but ladies may carry them in a small elegant portfolio, called a card-case. This they can hold in their hand, and it will contribute essentially (with an elegant handkerchief of embroidered cambric,) to give them an air of good taste.

On visiting cards, the address is usually placed under the name, towards the bottom of the card, and in smaller letters. Mourning cards are surmounted with a broad black margin; half mourning ones, with a black edge only.

It is bad tone to keep the cards you have received around the frame of a looking-glass; such an exposure shows that you wish to make a display of the names of visitors.

Etiquette for American Ladies 1840 - No Children or Dogs

Etiquette for Ladies: With Hints on the Preservation, Improvement, and Display of Female Beauty. Published by Lea and Blanchard, Philadelphia. 1838-1840

Ceremonious visits should be short; if the conversation ceases without being again continued by the person you have come to see, and if she gets up from her seat under any pretext whatever, custom requires you to make your salutation and withdraw.

If, before this tacit invitation to retire, other visitors are announced, you should adroitly leave them without saying much. If, while you are present, a letter is brought to the person you are visiting, and she should lay it' down without opening it, you must entreat her to read it. She will probably not do so, and-this circumstance will warn you to shorten your visit.

When you make a half-ceremonious call, and the person you are visiting insists upon your stopping, it is proper to do so, but after a few minutes you should rise to go; if you are urged still further, and are taken by the hands and made to sit down, as it were by force, to leave immediately would be impolite; but, nevertheless, after a short interval, get up a third time, and then certainly retire.

To carry children or dogs with one on a visit of ceremony, is altogether vulgar.
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Etiquette for American Ladies 1840 - On Leaving Cards & Recording Visits

Etiquette for Ladies: With Hints on the Preservation, Improvement, and Display of Female Beauty. Published by Lea and Blanchard, Philadelphia. 1838-1840

Should you not find the person you call on at home, leave a card.

With a friend or relation whom we treat as such, we do not keep an account of our visits.

The one who has most leisure, calls upon the one who has the least; but this privilege ought not to be abused; it is necessary to make our visits of friendship at suitable times. On the contrary, a visit of ceremony should never be made without keeping an account of it, and we should even remember the intervals at which they are returned, for it is indispensably necessary to let a similar interval elapse.

People in this way give you notice whether they wish to see you often or seldom. There are some persons whom one goes to see once in a fortnight; others, once a month; and others, less frequently.

In order not to omit visits, which are to be made, or to avoid making them from misinformation, when a preceding one has not been returned, persons who have an extensive acquaintance will do well to keep a little memorandum-book for this
purpose.
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Etiquette for American Ladies 1840 - On Propriety of Carriage or Body Language

Etiquette for Ladies: With Hints on the Preservation, Improvement, and Display of Female Beauty. Published by Lea and Blanchard, Philadelphia. 1838-1840

At home and abroad the carriage of the body is as expressive as the tone of the voice, and perhaps more so, because it is more constant; it betrays to the observer all the shades of character, and you ought to be very careful of thus making a general confession, by affected manners, a pretending deportment, sneering ways, rough movements, a hard countenance, impertinent signs and looks,
simpering smiles, clownish gestures, a nonchalant and effeminate posture, or a carriage of the body distinguished by prudery and stiffness.

Young ladies, little habituated to the world, ought to be on their guard against excessive timidity, for it not only paralyzes their powers, renders them awkward, and gives them an almost silly air, but it may even cause them to be accused of pride, among people who do not know that embarrassment frequently takes the form of superciliousness.

How often does it happen that timid persons do not notice you at all, or answer in a low voice, and fail in numberless agreeable attentions, for want of courage! These attentions, and these duties, they discharge in petto, but who will thank them for if! A proper degree of confidence, but not degenerating into assurance, still less into boldness or familiarity, is then one of the most desirable qualities in the world. To obtain which, you must observe the tone, and the manner of polite and obliging people, take them for your guides, and under their direction make continual efforts to conquer your timidity...

Propriety in the carriage of the body is especially indispensable to ladies. It is by this that, in a walk, or any assembly, people, who cannot converse with them, judge of their merit and their good education.
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Etiquette for American Ladies 1840 - On Departing Guests

Etiquette for Ladies: With Hints on the Preservation, Improvement, and Display of Female Beauty. Published by Lea and Blanchard, Philadelphia. 1838-1840

When visitors show any intention of leaving you, you ought affectionately to endeavour to detain them ; nevertheless, if their resolution seems immoveable, renew your invitations for another visit, and your regret at not having been able to succeed better in retaining them.

To do the honors of one's own house, it is necessary to have tact, address, and knowledge of the world, a great evenness of temper, and much affability. It is necessary to forget one's self, in order to be occupied with others, but without hurry or affectation; to encourage timid persons, and put them at their ease; and to enter into conversation, directing it with address rather than sustaining it ourselves.

The mistress of a house ought to be obliging, of an equal temper, and attentive in accommodating herself to the particular tastes of every one, especially to appear delighted that guests are with her, and make themselves perfectly at home.

They, on their part, should show themselves contented and grateful for the reception that is given; and should immediately on arriving at home, write to the persons who have entertained them, a letter of cordial thanks.
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South Carolina Churches in the Early 19C

Artist Charles Fraser (1782-1760) painted a series of watercolors of churches & meeting houses in South Carolina. He depicts broad swipes of landscapes allowing the viewer to see the buildings in the ground planned around them. These images & his descriptions are from the Carolina Art Association Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, South Carolina.
Charles Fraser (1782-1860) A VIEW IN ST. THOMAS’ PARISH POMPION HILL CHAPEL.

The 1765 church was called "Punkin Hill" locally. The Parish of St. Thomas & St. Dennis was made from the union of the Huguenot Church St. Denis & the Parish of St. Thomas which had been laid off by the Church Act of 1706. In Day on Cooper River it says: “on a high bluff, raising abruptly from the bed of the river, stands the Parish Chapel, commonly known as Pompion Hill Chapel, taking its name from the hill on which it stands.”
Charles Fraser (1782-1860) THE CHURCH IN ST. ANDREW’S PARISH, APRIL 1800.

Established on the west bank of the Ashley River in 1706, by 1722 the original church had became too small for the parishioners. The church was enlarged in the form of a cross, with a gallery at the west end designated for “people of colour.” Destroyed by fire, it was rebuilt by subscription in 1764, and it covered a great territory. It maintained a Chapel of Ease on James’ Island, which was attended by many Presbyterians on the Island; but, after 1787, the Reverend Thomas Mills states that “the inhabitants of James Island, who were nearly all Presbyterians, or Independents, had procured a minister and organized a Church of their own. After this period, in conformity with the injunctions of the Vestry, my Pastoral duties were generally confined to St. Andrew’s on the main.”
Charles Fraser (1782-1860). CHURCH IN ST. JAMES’ PARISH, GOOSE CREEK.

St. James’ Parish, Goose Creek, was laid off in 1706, and the church was completed in 1719. “So numerous was the congregation of this church that its capacity was found in a few years wholly insufficient”, and a Chapel of Ease was erected about 7 miles from the original church structure.
Charles Fraser (1782-1860) CHURCH ON JOHN’S ISLAND.

This was St. John’s Colleton, which had been a part of St. Paul’s but was separated from it in 1734, and served “John’s Island, Wadmalaw Island, Edisto Island, and the other adjacent Islands to the seaward.”
Charles Fraser (1782-1860) MEETING-HOUSE IN PRINCE WILLIAM’S PARISH.

The Stony Creek Presbyterian Church built in Indian Land on Stony Creek near Pocotaligo in 1743. Fraser notes in his Reminiscences, even during his boyhood, the Presbyterian "dissenters" never called their places of worship churches.
Charles Fraser (1782-1860)A MEETING-HOUSE NEAR JACKSONBOROUGH, 1799.

This is the meeting-house of Bethel Congregation of Pon Pon organized in St. Bartholomew’s Parish in 1728 and first ministered to by the Reverend Archibald Stobo, the Father of Presbyterianism in South Carolina. One historian told of Reverend Robert Baron, sent out to St. Bartholomew’s Parish by the Society for the Propagation of the gospel in 1753: “He arrived at Charles Town June 1st and entered on the duties of his cure on the 7th of that month. Mr. Baron was soon after taken ill, and had a severe seasoning, as it is usually called. His Parishioners were scattered over a great extent of country, and were an orderly and well behaved people. The Presbyterians were numerous, but they all lived together in mutual friendship and Christian charity.”
Charles Fraser (1782-1860) REMAINS OF THE CHURCH IN PRINCE WILLIAM’S PARISH.

This parish was often called Sheldon Church because of its proximity to the Bull plantation of that name. “An instance of the hospitality of Carolina, connected with the history of Sheldon Church, has been stated to us b y those who knew the fact. Stephen Bull who live in its vicinity, usually invited as his guests, on the Sabbath, the more respectable part of the Congregation who attended divine service; while his overseer, by his direction, and at his expense, liberally entertained the rest. At that time, seldom less than 60 or 70 carriages, of various descriptions were seen at the Church on the Lord’s Day. It was burnt in 1780 by the British under General Prevost, on their march from Savannah to the siege of CharlesTown.” It was rebuilt on its original lines after the Revolution.
Charles Fraser (1782-1860) THE CHURCH IN ST. BARTHOLOMEW’S PARISH, 1796.

“This part of Colleton County was made a Parish, by an act passed Dec. 18, 1708.” The first missionary, sent by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts was a Reverend Mister Osborn, who arrived in 1713. “His cure was very extensive, and his duty laborious. It was 40 miles long, and 30 wide…He officiated at five different places for the accommodations of his parishioners…Mr. Osborn was greatly esteemed and the Church flourished under his care. This prosperity, however, was soon interrupted. In 1715 the Indian War [Yemassee] broke out and the savages destroyed all the plantations in the Parish…The Missionary with difficulty escaped to Charles Town." By 1760 two brick Chapels of Ease had been built. The Church in this sketch was the Chapel of Pon Pon, which was burnt to the birck walls by the British during the Revolution but rebuilt after the war. The locals then called it "the Burnt Church."
Charles Fraser (1782-1860) A VIEW OF ST. JAMES’ CHURCH, GOOSE CREEK, FROM THE PARSONAGE.

The parsonage stood on a slight hill and its lane led dircectly to the church door. In the woods is a small 1759 vestry building, where Parish business could be transacted and where coachmen & grooms might take shelter..

Etiquette for American Ladies 1840 - Musical Chairs

Etiquette for Ladies: With Hints on the Preservation, Improvement, and Display of Female Beauty. Published by Lea and Blanchard, Philadelphia. 1838-1840

When any one enters, whether announced or not, rise immediately, advance towards them, request them to sit down...If it is a young man, offer him an arm-chair, or a stuffed one; if an elderly man, insist upon his accepting the armchair; if a lady, beg her to be seated upon the sofa. If the master of the house receives the visitors, he will take a chair and place himself at a little distance from them; if, on the contrary, it is the mistress of the house, and if she is intimate with the lady who visits her, she will place herself near her.

If several ladies come at once, we give the most honourable place to the one who, from age, or other considerations, is most entitled to respect. In winter, the most honourable places are those at the corners of the fire-place: in proportion as they place you in front of the fire, your seat is considered inferior in rank. Moreover, when it happens to be a married lady, and one to whom we wish to do honour, take her by the hand, and conduct her to the corner of the fire-place. If this place is occupied by a young lady, she ought to rise, and offer her seat to the other, taking for herself a chair in the middle of the circle...

If a lady who receives a half ceremonious visit, is sewing, she ought to leave off immediately, and not resume it, except at the request of the visitor. If they are on quite intimate terms, she ought herself to request permission to continue. If a person visits in an entirely ceremonious way, it would be very impolite to work even an instant. Moreover, with friends a lady should hardly be ocupied with her work, but seem to forget it on their account.

In proportion as the visitor is a stranger, the master or mistress of the house rises, and any persons who may be already there, are obliged to do the same. If some of them then withdraw, the master or mistress of the house should conduct them as far as the door...It is no longer the custom to give the hand to ladies, but to offer them the arm...If she is to return in a carriage, we should politely hand her into it.
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Early 19th-Century Landscapes of South Carolina

South Carolina artist Charles Fraser (1782-1860) painted some watercolors of the landscapes he saw around him in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. These are from the Carolina Art Association Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, South Carolina.

The South View of Fort Mechanic Charleston, July 4, 1796.

South West View of Newport.

Sheldon.

Near Charleston, June, 1805.

Capt. Frederick Fraser's Place, Prince William's Parish.

Another View of Richmond.

A View on Mepkin.

A View Near Charleston , 1801, Where St. Paul's Church Now Stands, Ratcliffe Lands.

A View Mr. Lindsay's From South Bay, May 10th..