Charity Worker Isabella Marshall Graham 1742-1814

Isabella Marshall Graham, (1742-1814), teacher & early charitable worker, the daughter of John & Janet (Hamilton) Marshall, was born in Lanarkshire, Scotland, & grew up on an estate at Eldersley near Paisley. Her father, a landowner, raised Isabella & her brother in comfort, & a legacy from her grandfather, spent at her own request on a “finished education,” enabled her to attend the boarding school of Mrs. Betty Morehead for 7 years. The family was known for piety, in the stern tradition of Scottish Presbyterian Calvinism, & the child early manifested a religious interest. At 17, she became a communicant of the Church of Scotland under the ministry of Dr. John Witherspoon, later president of the College of New Jersey (Princeton).

Isabella Marshal Graham from the Library of Congress

She was married in 1765 to Dr. John Graham of Paisley, a widower & a “gentleman of liberal education, & of respectable standing.” Planning to settle in America, they went 2 years later to Canada, where Graham was physician to a British army regiment, the Royal Montreal, & Fort Niagara. They left behind in Scotland an infant son who died within the year; in North America their other 4 children were born: Jessie, (Mrs. Hay Robinson), Joanna Graham Bethune, Isabella (Mrs. Andrew Smith), & John. Mrs. Graham enjoyed life at Fort Niagara, although she found the soldiers’ irreligion appalling. Her own faith enabled her to accept with devout resignation the death of her husband in Antigua, where they had recently been transferred in 1773, just before the birth of her 5 child.

Left almost penniless, Mrs. Graham returned to her father in Scotland, only to find that he, too, was in need. For 3 years she lived in a thatched cottage at Cartside, in such poverty that she sometimes had only porridge & potatoes to eat. Unable to support her father & children on her meager widow’s pension, she opened a small school in Paisley. Around 1780, on the invitation of some “”friends of religion,” she founded a boarding school for young ladies in Edinburgh. In this improved situation she was able to indulge in charity, becoming “ingenious in contrivances to do good.” She used some of her income from tuitions to help people in small businesses, taking payment in their manufactured articles; she served as almoner for her friend Lady Glenorchy, a philanthropist & a patron of the school; & she organized a mutual-benefit Society for the Relief of the Destitute Sick.

David F. Bloom, ed. Memoirs of Eminently Pious Women of Britain and America (Hartford, 1833), detail

Her desire to return to America, which she thought “the country where the Church of Christ would eventually flourish,” was encouraged by Dr. Witherspoon & “many respectable persons” of New York. In 1789, she came to New York City with her daughters & established a girls’ school that soon had more than 50 students & a distinguished list of patrons. Uniting with the Cedar Street Scotch Presbyterian Church, Mrs. Graham moved in a congenial religious & social climate. Her daughters all married New York merchants; once they were comfortably settled she retired from teaching, lived with one or another of them, & devoted herself to philanthropy.

In 1797, Mrs. Graham joined with her daughter Joanna & her friends Sarah (Ogden) Hoffman (1742-1821) & Elizabeth Bayley Seton in organizing the Society for the Relief of Poor Widows with Small Children-one of the earliest charitable associations in the United States & one of the first instances of women taking organized action on their own. Mrs. Graham was chosen “First Directress”, or head of the society, & for then years she supervised its board of managers, each member of which was responsible for visiting in one district. Under her frugal management the society aided 98 widows with 223 children during the winter of 1797-98, & the number increased during the years following. With funds raised by subscription &, after 1802, when the society was given a New York State charter, with money from legislative grants, they purchased food & distributed it to needs widows; in unusual cases they gave direct financial relief. The society also sought employment for the widows. Buying a house for the purpose, Mrs. Graham & her associated took orders for needlework, & during the winter of 1807-08, when work was scarce, they gave out flax & spinning wheels, & paid for the product. They engaged widows to teach schools in different parts of the city; some of Mrs. Graham’s former pupils, under her supervision, conducted a school for the widows’ children. The society also opened two Sabbath schools for the instruction of adults, one of which Mrs. Graham herself taught.

When her daughter Joanna Bethune organized the Orphan Asylum Society in 1806, Mrs. Graham presided over the founding meeting & in 1810, became a trustee. With her daughter she taught for a time at the asylum’s school, & she gave regular religious instruction at the school as well as to children in the public almshouse. With her friend Mrs. Hoffman she regularly visited needy families, helping them with her own money & with religious encouragement; often she would be away from home all day on various charitable missions. All kinds of destitute & unfortunate women came under her care. She called on female inmates of the Lunatic Asylum & sick women prisoners & served as president of the Ladies Board of the Magdalen Society form its organization in 1811, until her death. In her final year, at 71, she established an adult school for young people working in factories, which met on Sundays, & presided over the organization of her daughter’s society for establishing a female House of Industry to provide employment for needy women.

No longer strong enough for extensive visiting, Mrs. Graham spent much of her last 2 years in prayer & meditation. She died of “cholera morbus” in New York City at the home of her son-in-law Divie Bethune. A biography, The Power of Faith: Exemplified in the Life and Writings of the Late Mrs. Isasbella Graham, of New York (1816), published by the Bethunes, was widely circulated here & in Great Britain, with more than 50,000 copies printed in the United States before 1852 (Sarah J. Hale, Woman’s Record, 2nd ed., 1855, pp. 331-32). The widest circulation was in American Tract Society editions. In the text, her daughter & son-in-law recall her early efforts to encourage industry among the female poor:

“In the winter 1807-8, when the suspension of commerce by the embargo, rendered the situation of the poor more destitute than ever, Mrs. Graham adopted a plan best calculated in her view to detect the idle applicant for charity, & at the same time to furnish employment for the more worthy amongst the female poor. She purchased flax, & lent wheels, where applicants had none. Such as were industrious, took the work with thankfulness, and were paid for it; those who were beggars by profession, never kept their word to return for the flax or the wheel.”.

The Tragic Life of Katherine Chase Pratt (1875-1942)

John Singer Sargent (1856 - 1925). Katherine Chase Pratt 1890 at the Worcester Art Museum, Massachusetts

I have long wondered about the thoughtful young woman portrayed in these two John Singer Sargent portraits, both painted in 1890. She certainly does not seem like the typical socialite painted by Sargent. I found her papers at the Yale University Divinity School Library. Their description of her life answers many questions.

Raised as a traditional Episcopalian, Katherine Chase Pratt married Alfred Shapleigh, a graduate of Harvard Medical School; and they served in Tientsin, China under the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions from 1896 to 1897.

Apparently experiencing a transformation in their religious beliefs, the Shapleighs divested themselves of many of the wedding gifts and possessions given to them by their affluent families and returned to the U.S., where Alfred attended Bible schools. They engaged in home mission work until able to return to China under the more conservative China Inland Mission board.

They returned to China as missionaries in 1904, but Alfred and their two children tragically died of smallpox shortly after their arrival.

Katherine Shapleigh decided to remain in China under the CIM for several assignments (1904-1908, 1915-1920, 1926-1927). She served at the training school for future mission workers run by the China Inland Mission in Yangchow and in later years worked with Russian refugees at the Foreign Women's Home in Shanghai.

After her return to the United States, Shapleigh served as Dean of Women at Wheaton College in Illinois.

John Singer Sargent (1856 - 1925). Katherine Chase Pratt 1890 at the Peters Corporation, Santa Fe, New Mexico

Here is a brief chronology of her fairly tragic life:

1875 Dec 29 Born in Worcester, MA

1890 Portrait painted by John Singer Sargent
1892-3 Attended St. Agnes School, Albany, NY
1895 Met Alfred Shapleigh in Princeton, MA where their families had summer homes

1896 Jun 2 Married Alfred Shapleigh; they had three children: Samuel Brooks (1897-1905), Gordon (1899-1900), Stephen (1903-1905).
1896-7 Served in Tientsin, China under the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions
1897 Family returned to Worcester, MA, where Alfred took over practice of physician who was on leave
1898-9 Moved to Boston, where Alfred was assistant to his father, who was president of the Shapleigh Coffee Co., and engaged in Bible study
1900 Alfred took Bible training courses at Nyack College in New York and Moody Bible Institute in Chicago
1901 Engaged in evangelistic home missionary work in California
1901-02 Returned to Boston; worked with Salvation Army
1902-03 Home missionary work in Colorado and California
1904 Returned to China under China Inland Mission;
1905 Alfred and two surviving sons died of smallpox shortly after the family's arrival in China. Alfred and the sons had not been vaccinated against smallpox, so did not survive the disease; Katherine suffered a mild case of smallpox but recovered.
1905-08 Katherine remained in China, engaging in language study and serving at missionary training school in Yangchow
1908 KS returned to U.S. where she cared for her father and spoke in churches
1915-16 In Yangchow, followed by return to U.S.
1918-20 Working with women Russian refugees at Foreign Women's Home, Shanghai, followed by return to U.S.
1926-27 Working at Foreign Women's Home, Shanghai, China.
1934 Appointed Dean of Women at Wheaton College, Wheaton, IL
1935 Received B.A.
1937 Following a severe heart attack, KS retired from Wheaton position and moved to North Carolina
1942 Died in NC

Click here for the Katherine Shapleigh Papers, Record Group No. 176, Special Collections, Yale Divinity School Library.

African American Shaker leaker, Philadelphian Rebecca Cox Jackson 1795-1871

Little is known of the early life of Rebecca Cox Jackson, an African American woman who became an eldress in the Shaker religion & founded a Shaker community in Philadelphia. Rebecca was born in 1795 to a free family, & lived until the age of 3 or 4 with her grandmother, who died when Rebecca was 7. From the time she was 10, she was responsible for the care of 2 younger siblings; as a result, she was "the only child of my mother that had not learning." Rebecca's mother died when she was 13, & she was taken in by her brother Joseph Cox, a 31-year old AME minister, widower, & father of 6 children.

 Pavel Petrovich Svinin, African American Church in Philadelphia (St. Petersberg, 1815),

Sometime during the next 22 years, when her autobiography begins, Rebecca married Samuel S. Jackson, who also lived in the Cox house. In addition to managing her brother's home, Rebecca worked as a seamstress, one of the most common occupations for black women during that period.
In July 1830, Rebecca experienced a religious awakening during a severe thunderstorm. For 5 years, her fear of storms had been so great that "In time of thunder & lightning I would have to go to bed because it made me so sick." On this day, she was unable to contain her fear, convinced that she would die during the storm. In her moment of greatest despair, as she prayed for either death or redemption, she suddenly felt as though "the cloud burst," & the lightning that had been "the messenger of death, was now the messenger of peace, joy, & consolation."

After her conversion, Rebecca began to experience visions in which she discovered the presence of a divine inner voice that instructed her in the use of her spiritual gifts. She soon developed a large following among a neighborhood "Covenant Meeting," typically comprised of women, that in this case also included several men. Rebecca was harshly criticized for "aleading the men" & for her refusal to formally join any church, which several Methodist ministers saw as "chopping up our churches."

Portrait of Reverend Morris Brown was included in James A. Handy's Scraps of African Methodist Episcopal History, printed in Philadelphia sometime in the 19th century, and reprinted in 1901.

Morris Brown, who succeeded Richard Allen as Bishop of the AME Church, came to a meeting led by Rebecca with the intention of stopping her; but after listening to her, he declared, "If ever the Holy Ghost was in any place, it was in that meeting. Let her alone now."

Rebecca's religious activism soon led to the dissolution of her marriage, as well as a separation from her brother, who "had always been kind & like a father to me." An incident that led to the rupture in their relationship -- Joseph's failure to teach her to read, as he had promised -- also sparked a remarkable manifestation of Rebecca's "gifts of power." Frustrated with her inability to read & write for herself, Rebecca listened to the inner voice telling her that God would teach her to read, & suddenly discovered that she could!

Rebecca became an itinerant preacher, inspiring both white & blacks. Her desire to preach, her insistence on absolute obedience to her inner voice, & her radical notions of "holy living" (which included celibacy, even within marriage) created controversy within the churches. According to her account, some ministers even threatened to expel church members who opened their homes to her during her travels.

During her travels, Rebecca discovered the Shakers, whose religious views were remarkably similar to her own. Impressed by her spiritual gifts, they embraced her as a prophet, & she remained in the Watervliet, New York community for four years. Although devout in her commitment to Shaker doctrine, Rebecca was not satisfied with Shaker outreach to other blacks. A conflict over authority soon led her to return to Philadelphia with her companion & protégé, Rebecca Perot.

After 6 years in Philadelphia, the "colored Rebeccas" ended their estrangement from the Shaker leadership & returned to Watervliet for a year. Now reconciled, they once again left, intent on establishing a Philadelphia family of black Shakers, but this time with the moral, legal, & financial support of Shaker society.

The Philadelphia family, which combined elements of Shaker theology & black female praying band traditions, consisted of anywhere from 12 to 20 members, mostly but not exclusively black & female, living together in a large house on Erie Street. Other black Shakers in & around Philadelphia also gathered there for services.

When Rebecca Jackson died in 1871, Rebecca Perot took the name "Mother Rebecca Jackson" & assumed leadership of the Philadelphia family, which survived another 40 years. When Perot & other elderly sisters retired to Watervliet in 1896, it was believed that "Mother Jackson's colony in Philadelphia" had come to an end. However, that same year, in his pioneering study of black Philadelphia, W.E.B. DuBois found two Shaker households in the 7th ward; & in 1908, a Shaker editor noted the discovery of "a colony of Believers there, & zealous, too."

Jackson's journals are preserved in Jean McMahon Humez' "Gifts Of Power" which collects the writings of Mother Rebecca Cox Jackson, whose career as preacher and Shaker leader spanned from 1830 until her death in 1871.

At the beginning of her career Rebecca was a part of the Methodist Episcopal Church in her youth & was involved in "Holiness" prayer meetngs during the 1820s.  As a result of the Holiness movement's highly participatory nature, was able to write down detailed visions of the coming of Heaven & the Day Of Judgement. Many of her early visions realted closely to Jesus's miracles, but there were also many dreams of such mundane things as quilts, cakes, rain, and deaths of her relatives. Later, she decribed the strains preaching was having on her married life, as she moved into intense prayer as Methodists criticised her ministry as a black woman preaching a false doctrine.  Jackson focused clearly and sincerely on trying to live the life of Jesus, especially after visiting the Shakers in 1836.

As a Shaker, Rebecca Jackson did not cede that mystical, fiery character of her early writings, but her later writings have an epic tone lacking in previous letters. She saw during her residence at Watervliet a desite to do missionary work among blacks, which is seen in visions of herself traveling long distances or of the arrival of Native American seeking help. In Philadelphia, Jackson's dreams became focused on early events in her life, and she would dream of being united with her brother as she went on a long pilgrimate to develop a Shaker community for blacks. Her work during her 2nd residence at Watervliet and with the Philadelphia Shakers was indeed seen by her as "going to Zion." She saw herself as revealing the Kngdom of Heaven in her labors with the people of Philadelphia.

See PBS Africans in America.

Anna Carroll, an Advisor to President Abraham Lincoln

Article from The Salisbury Times (now called The Delmarva Times), Salisbury, Maryland 

February 6, 1959 by Dr. William H. Wroten, Jr.

Anna Ella, the daughter of Thomas King Carroll of Kingston Hall, Somerset County, Maryland, was born on Aug. 29, 1815. Her early education was not received through formal schooling but from her parents. Because of this she grew up in a world of business and politics, for her father's library was far above the average, befitting a man who was to become governor of the state. She received a better background in law and politics from her father than most men did in training for the bar.

Anna Ella Carroll 1815-1894

The Carrolls of Kingston Hall, like so many other plantation owners of the period, were yearly becoming increasingly land and slave poor. The point was reached where they were unable to maintain all their slave and land holdings. The price of tobacco on the Eastern Shore was no longer a reliable source of income. Many of the surplus slaves could have been sold to...toil in the cotton fields of the deep south, but the Carrolls viewed such a move as a horrible fate. Miss Carroll personally was caught in a trap; she was a member of a slave-holding family but at the same time working with the American Colonization Society for the gradual freeing of the slaves. She once mortgaged her own salary to prevent the sale of some of her slaves to the cotton fields. She also helped to finance the family by the establishment of a girls' school at Kingston Hall.

Finally the economic pressure was too great and many of the Carroll slaves were turned over to neighbors, who they knew would give them a good home. Kingston Hall was sold and Thomas King Carroll bought and moved to Warwick Fort Manor on the Choptank River, near Cambridge.

Anna Ella Carroll...had turned to a career as a writer. Because of her cultured background and training, along with a talent for writing, she soon became a success. Among her early work in this field was her endeavor to promote the interest of building railroads, especially a transcontinental line connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Jefferson Davis even asked her to study and write about the Memphis-Charleston Railroad, a project which helped her later during the Civil War to realize the significance of transportation to the Southern cause. While writing and keeping records for the Whig Party in the 1850's, through the influence of Henry Clay, certain papers fell into her hands concerning plans for Southern secession. Miss Carroll kept these papers and made good use of them for the Union cause against the Southerner, John C. Breckenridge, in the 1860's.

Anna Ella Carroll wrote many articles for the newspapers, among which were the New York Express and the National Intelligencer. She made many friends among the United States Navy when she wrote in their defense in 1855, when a reorganization of the Navy was in progress. In writing articles about political corruption at the polls, her work, "The American Battle," made her a political celebrity.

Miss Carroll showed very little faith in the ability of Lincoln both during the election of 1860 and even after he had won the office of President; but being a great patriot she was determined to give this Republican her support. All during the war she wrote in defense of the Union and President Lincoln. Her attack on the secession speech of Sen. Breckenridge was published and circulated by the War Department. It is also said that she was a major influence in helping Gov. Hicks of Maryland keep the state officially in the Union.

When President Lincoln personally called for her services she did not fail him. At his request she wrote "The Relation of Revolted Citizens to the National Government," upon which Lincoln based some of his later actions. Just before this she had written a very powerful pamphlet entitled, "The War Powers of the Government."

Probably the most interesting and significant of her assignment is dealt with a problem of strategy. The course of the war in the West, the Mississippi Basin, was vital to the Union plan of victory. Because she had relatives in St. Louis, but more important because she had the talents for such an undertaking, Miss Carroll was sent to study that region. As a result of her observations and studies, she suggested that the Union plan of attack be the Tennessee River instead of the proposed Mississippi Expedition.

The War Department saw the significance of this strategy and the Tennessee River became the point of attack. The capture of Forts Henry and Donelson, under this plan, by General U. S. Grant were major factors in breaking the Confederate fortifications, ending in the fall of Vicksburg. The success of this plan meant that the Confederate system of communication was destroyed between the East and West. It is said that Miss Carroll offered a plan for the capture of Vicksburg which was very similar to the one General Grant used to achieve victory.

Lincoln and other prominent men during the war knew of her great services but felt for political and military reasons she would have to forego public recognition. Seemingly, it was understood that later Lincoln would make public her work in saving the Union; but Lincoln's untimely death prevented such action. For years after the Civil War some American leaders worked hard to have her recognized as the "mother" of the Tennessee Plan, and to see her paid for her services. Many years later Congress did give official recognition and also voted her a monthly pension of $50.

In 1891 Miss S. E. Blacknall wrote the first volume of a biography of Miss Carroll, which was just two years before her death, Feb. 19, 1893. Miss Carroll died in Washington, D.C., where she had been living for some time, but she is buried in the Old Trinity Graveyard beside her father, mother, and other members of her family. On the slab which has recently been placed to honor her we find these words: "Maryland's Most Distinguished Lady. A Great humanitarian and close friend of Abraham Lincoln. She conceived the successful Tennessee Campaign and guided the President on his constitutional war powers."

Lincoln's Secretary of War, Edwin M. Stanton, said, "Her course was the most remarkable in the war. She got no pay and did the great work that made others famous."

Francis Bicknell Carpenter’s painting, entitled “The First Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation Before the Cabinet,”

Anna's role as a military strategist during the Civil War was controversial. President Lincoln sent her, accompanied by an army officer, to observe and report on the War on the western front. Her reports resulted in major military strategies that eventually doomed the Confederacy and ended the intervention of the European nations on the behalf of the South. The President and his Cabinet kept her authorship a secret, however; the public was not to know that the Union plans were devised by not only a civilian, but by a woman.

Anna continued to advise the federal government and write Union propaganda throughout the War. After President Lincoln's assassination, she devoted her efforts to reconstruction. However, Anna was largely ignored during those early reconstruction years. She appealed to Congress for recognition and compensation for her contributions to the War effort. Eventually, indirect recognition came in Francis B. Carpenter's 1864 painting of “The First Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation Before the Cabinet.” The picture shows an empty chair with a folder of maps and notes similar to those Anna had carried. It is believed that this was a way of acknowledging the "unrecognized member of the Cabinet."

In 1881, a bill was finally introduced in Congress to grant recognition and pension to Anna. The compensation was to be at a rate given to major generals. Unfortunately, President Garfield was assassinated while the bill was under consideration, and House Bill 7256 mysteriously disappeared. Instead, Congress passed a bill to put Anna’s name on the pension rolls and to pay her $50 a month for life for the "important military service rendered by her during the late Civil War."

Even though she was an invalid in her old age, Anna continued to write. When the leaders of the Women's Suffrage Movement learned of her story, they attracted attention to her plight, claiming that such an injustice would not have happened if women were allowed to vote. Anna Ella Carroll died on February 19, 1894. And, of course, women did not get the right to vote in national elections in the United States until 1920.

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)