Mary Beckley Bristow
1861: This once happy country
January 1st 1861.
The revolving wheel of time, according to chronological records, has ushered in the five-thousand eight-hundred and sixty-fifth year of time since the creation of the world1 and eighteen-hundredth and sixty-first since the birth of the Redeemer of sinners. During that period what momentous scenes have transpired. The rise and downfall of nations. Empires and Kingdoms have arisen and are now crumbled in the dust. Emperors, Kings, and despots have laid aside their crowns and are now mouldering in the grave. The splendid Marble in some cases points us to the places where repose the ashes of those whom historians inform us were once the great, the ambitious, the renowned of earth. Some of their splendid victories excite our admiration. Their acts of despotism and oppression excite such feelings of abhorrence that we almost wonder that a God of justice and truth did not strike them dead while in the commission of their crimes. But they have passed away, and but for the faithful pages of history, we should not have known of their existence. The Republics of Greece and Rome have passed away. The Pope now occupies the throne of the Caesars.2 Priestly rule is and will forever be at war with human liberty.
We fondly hoped that in our own promised land, this home for the oppressed and downtrodden of the other nations of the earth, the stagnant pools of priestcraft could not enter to do us any great injury. Mistaken hope, delusive [thought?]. /Although/ For years past those fanatical bigots have been pouring their pernicious treason into our halls of legislation, year after year, by their petitions on the subject of slavery. (Why they should be so much disturbed on a subject that they have no interest in is a mystery. If slavery be the awful sin they say it is, it does not lie at their door. They do not share the sin; therefore they need not bear the punishment. We are perfectly willing to bear the evil and the penalty. All we ask is to be let alone and for them not to tamper with our [servants] whom we have raised and love, and who loved us and a few years ago would have died for us if necessary.)
O, how much unhappiness and disgust they have caused both masters and slaves by promulgating their baneful abolition doctrines, slipping about in the night when all honest people are asleep, casting their firebrands in our quiet homes. Still, I hoped that their patriotism and inherent love of liberty [were] enough in our beloved country to put the mischief down at any time when it was attempted, but, Alas, my confidence was misplaced. Ambitious demogogues, combined with abolitionism, is [sic] to all human appearance about to destroy the finest fabric of government that was ever woven by human hands. But as hopeless as things looks to our short-sighted vision, we know that it is the Mighty God that builds up and pulls down nations, and although all looks dark and gloomy, yet He is able to bring light out of darkness and peace out of evil, and though his chosen people, the old baptists, have been straying from him and have been running after the things of this world, each one taken up with his or her idols, He has said in his blessed word that not one but all things shall work for their good. O, Lord, cause each member of thy mystical body to return to Thee, to trust in and lean on upon Thee. O, give them grace to draw near to Thee in this dark and cloudy day.
The darkest clouds obscure our sky,
The envenomed shaft is at us hurled.
Ah, whither, whither, should we fly,
If not to Thee who made this world?
The power alone is in Thy hand
Who said at first, “Let there be light.”
O, gracious Sovereign save this land
And clear away this darksome night.
Again I must alter dates. 1860 can never be recalled, and notwithstanding I have much in the sad constitution of our beloved country to deplore, yet I have great cause to give thanks for the many mercies and blessings bestowed on one so totally unworthy, the least. I am often led to exclaim, “Why is it that I have been spared and preserved, when so many of my fellow beings of so much more seeming benefit to the world than myself have been called from time to eternity?” . . .
February 24 1861.
Have been too restless in mind about the situation of this once happy country to even answer the letters of my correspondents. I can see no good reason why the South should not peaceably secede from the Union, which in reality has been no real union for years past. The Senate and congress of the United States have met annually at Washington City to quarrel. The North, that is the Abolitionist portion of the North, seem determined to trample on the rights of the South, and the South are just as determined not to be trampled on. Then of course it is far better to separate. O Lord, if consistent with thy will cause a peaceable separation. I suffer not my country to be desolated by war’s devastating hand.
Yesterday I saw the remains of our young friend George W Wilson consigned to the silent grave. Was informed he expressed an entire resignation to the will of God and a hope of being with Jesus after death. . . .
March 8th 61.
Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated President of the United States on the 4th day of this month. He has it in his power (for us poor mortals to look at the matter) to do much of good or evil, and if we judge him by the silly, foolish speeches he made on his route and the pitiful, cowardly manner in which he approached the Capitol, slipping there in
disguise,3
we have but little reason to hope for good. I would defy a “Philadelphia
lawyer”4
to guess at what his intended policy will be from his inaugural address, whether he will give us peace by acknowledging the independence of those States that have seceded, now known as the “Southern Confederacy,” or not, as he ought to do, we can give no idea. For my own part I believe he does not intend it. I believe him to be one of those deceitful, hardheaded persons who would overturn a world (if they could do it without personal detriment) to accomplish their fanatical bigotry. I imagine Lincoln to be such a man as the witch burners of Salem,
Massachusetts,5 without Cotton Mather’s sense to go on it, but none the less dangerous because of being
feeble-minded.6 May the Lord, if consistent with his will, save our country from a civil war.
March 21st [1861].
Was only yesterday congratulating myself that we would escape the measles again as we have many times before when it was prevalent in the country. But this morning three of the oldest negroes of the place broke out with measles. I can but feel quite uneasy about them and am much fatigued, as I have the greater part of the work to do. My dear brother Reuben has been having severe chills off and on since last September; several of his family have been chilling the same way. Several of them are sick now.7
March 26th [1861].
This evening we had the first thunderstorm of the season; never saw a worse looking cloud; fear we shall hear of much damage in some places.
April 19th [1861].
Fort Sumpter [sic] has been taken by the Southern Confederacy.8 Well, they have only taken their own property.
Sunday, April 22, 1861.
Another bright, beautiful morning. All nature is wearing its most cheerful aspect. The fruit trees as far as the eye can reach are literally loaded with lovely red and white bloom, giving promise of a bountiful crop of luscious fruit, but we are aware that a frost may yet nip them in the bud and blast our hopes. Solomon, the royal songster, has compared the blessed Messiah to the apple tree, “As the apple tree amongst the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons; I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste.”9 Truly an apple tree in full bloom is a most beautiful sight, and may bear some faint resemblence in point of beauty to our far more glorious apple tree under whose shadow I hope I have been permitted to sit, and his fruit was indeed sweet to my spiritual palate. It has been long since I had a love visit from my King, and I am willing to acknowledge my total undeservedness of the high honor, but then I also know that not one of his previous visits were mine by right of anything done by me, and therefore I will try to be patient and wait. For he that cometh will come and will not tarry any longer than he sees is for the best. O Lord, make me more worthy to receive thy visits and cause my heart to long for thy presence.10
I was at Union yesterday; every person I saw was more or less excited, some troubled to the very heart. The fraticidal [sic] war has already commenced, and where or when it will be stopped is known to God alone. The War commenced between the North and South, but East and West is also rising. The worst passions of men are aroused. Brother has arisen against brother; Fathers against children. And how soon may the lovely, quiet scenery that even now inspires a deep feeling of sweet yet bitter sadness, be torn and trampled by war’s devastating hand. My every feeling is with the South. Their interest is ours. With them we should stand or fall. O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, Thou knowest we are by far the weakest. But if Thou be for us, we care not who is against us. . . .
June 23rd 1861.
O, what an awful situation our once happy country is in. War, dreadful, devastating war, with all its horrors is all around us. Old Virginia, the Mother of Kentucky, has had several battles fought on her soil.11 The invaders seem disposed to subjugate and destroy all who dare oppose their bigotry and fanaticism. Indeed some of them from whom we hoped better things boldly talk of extermination. . . .
July 21st 1861.
This is a lovely morning, but my heart is sad and restless; have heard the cannons roaring at Cincinnati. I know full well that if they are not deceived by their dispatches, as they have been several times, the roaring of federal cannon brings no good news from the side on which my sympathies are enlisted, the side of liberty and right as I firmly believe.12
Wednesday, July 24th 1861.
A great battle13 has been fought in old Virginia between the North, East & West against the South, who is battling alone for her rights. According to their own accounts the Abolition forces (I can call them nothing else, though some of them indignantly reject the name, but as they are fighting with and for abolitionism I can’t see what else they are at. However I see some symptoms of return to sanity in some of the eastern States. God grant it may be, for it looks to me like those who call themselves democrats, conservatives &c, are in fighting Lincoln’s unjust battles welding chains for themselves as fast as the Abolitionists could desire) have been defeated with great loss. I do not rejoice that the abolitionists are killed, but I know I am glad the South has gained the day and would rejoice, truely rejoice, if this battle would end the war and cause a peaceable separation between the slave-holding and nonslave-holding States. . . .
August 6th 1861.
Sarah Jane Clarkson14 and I spent the day at Broth. Stansifer’s.15 Went down to spend the day with Brother & Sister Shannon.16 Found Sister Stansifer very unhappy at the idea of her sons going South17 to fight for their rights and firm principles, as our State, Ky., has again gone from a dead and buried Union with our bitter enemies. I think if I had sons I could with pleasure arm and send them off for the fight, but I recollect I have never been tried, and therefore it is impossible for me to tell how or what I should do. The result of the election last Monday made my heart very sad.18 Often have I internally asked the question, “What, will Ky. go with the North against her own interest in every sense of the word?” The idea would render me very unhappy. . . .
August 24th 1861.
Mat and I were just ready yesterday morning to step in the buggy when Sister Stansifer and Sister Bettie19 come by to go with us to Salem Association, held with the Salem Church nine miles from here,20 when we heard my dear Sister Statira was very ill. We gave out going to the Association, and Mother and I started over to Reuben’s immediately. Found Statira quite poorly; staid with her until this evening. When we came home, found a long, good letter from Brother T P Dudley to Mother. I was much pleased. Have heard that Brother Dudley differs widely with us on the subject of this cruel and unjust war, but hope he does not go so far as we have heard on the subject. I also hope most sincerely that the war may not split the baptist[s], but fear it will. . . .21
September 9th 1860 [sic].
. . . Reuben, his wife, and family were here until this evening. They staid today to meet dear Millie Clarkson & her afflicted daughter, poor Lizzie.22 Her time in this world according to all human apppearances will be very short; consumption is wasting her away. . . . Martha and her little, weakly babe borned the 28th of last month23 seem to be doing pretty well. I think I desire to be thankful.
Thursday, September 12th [1861].
O, God, dictate my thoughts, my words . . . [to] ask thee with humble faith and trusting heart to save us from the hosts of marauders and murderers that are now desolating many of our sister States. Burning, rapine, and every demoniac act that the human heart can invent goes in their footsteps. And now, O Lord, thou knowest a part of that same infuriate army, by the command of the tyrant Lincoln, are encamped in our own state, doubtless with the intention of playing the same game of destruction that they have in Virginia, Maryland, and Missouri.24 Our citizens are in great measure unarmed, have been left so by our traitorous Legislators that our State may be enslaved for their own aggrandizement. . . .
Sept. 14th 1861.
The sun is calmly sinking behind the dense forest. How quiet all things are this evening. And yet ’tis sadly mournful, for perhaps in some part of our beloved country the day-god may be sinking so serenely above the dead and the dying. O, ’tis dreadful to think our favored land should come to this sad state. . . .
Oct 5th 1861.
Through the kind providence of my heavenly Father, My Mother and I met with a small number of the members of Sardis today. Anselm was there. His wife and babe have been improving since they have been from home. . . .
Oct 11th 1861.
The past week has been spent in visiting sick; indeed for nearly two months I have done but little else. My brother Reuben was on the cars returning from Cynthiana;25 a collision of Cars took place.26 By the shock he was thrown down and both feet caught between two cars. I do hope my first emotion when I heard of it was one of gratitude to my God that it was not worse. Have been to see him twice. The first time I thought his hurts would not be very bad, but they got much worse and sloughed to the bone. He is now getting much better again, but can’t walk a step yet. Came home yesterday, heard poor Lizzie Clarkson was much worse. Went up to see her, was really astonished at the great change that has taken place since I saw her last week. Think she can’t last but a few days. O, how hard she clings to life. . . .
Willie & Jerome started Wednesday, the 9th, to try if possible to join.27
Oct 12th [1861].
Went over yesterday to see Huldah Conn, who has been quite sick for two weeks; hope she is some better. Staid all night with Lizzie C—. Think she is going fast. Her poor Mother quite irreconciled, but I feel assured that her heavenly Father, who has helped her in many and sore trials will not forsake her now. Rode up again this evening; she is no better. Heard this evening that my brother’s bruised feet were greatly improved; he can walk a little. . . . Heard this morning that Susan Clarkson is dead.28
Sunday 13th [Oct 1861].
Had company today. Bettie B.29 and I drove up to see Lizzie this morning. She has every symptom of an early dissolution of soul and body. Bettie remarked as we came home that this time last year when her and Lizzie were attending White Haven Seminary30 that Lizzie’s health seemed far better than her own. . . . Dear Lizzie is just eighteen years old.
1861 Oct 14th.
Paid Huldah a visit this morning at Volney’s. She is mending but still very poorly. I can but feel uneasy about my own child Sarah Jane — she looks too badly, complains too much of her side to please me, but hope it will pass off as many such spells have before. This evening Mother and I drove up to see dear Lizzie; found her so low that I should not be surprised never to see her alive any more. . . . It is a fact that Edward Clarkson’s daughter Susan died in Covington last Thursday night. We had not even heard she was ill.
1861 Oct 15th.
This morning at five o’clock, dear Lizzie breathed her last. I went up early. Instead of the suffering I saw yesterday, I found the still calm of death. No more pain, no more sorrow, no more death for her, but what sorrow her poor Mother, brother & Sister are experiencing.
1861 Oct 16th.
Today dear Lizzie was laid, or rather her mortal form was laid, in the family grave-yard by the side of her Father,31 there to last until the great trump shall sound. . . . The first words her dear, bereaved Mother spoke when I met her this morning was, “I felt much better this morning. Yesterday I felt that I could not bear this dispensation of divine providence. It seemed so hard to give up my child. This morning I feel perfectly resigned to the will of my God. It is all right. I would rather have her back if it were within my power.“ But when the heavy clods fell on the coffin, it went to the Mother’s heart. O Lord, thou hast smitten and thou alone canst heal. Two young cousins have passed away in a very short time. Lizzie has been lingering long. Susan [was] called from time to eternity very suddenly with inflamation of the brain. Her body will be taken out of the vault at Covington tomorrow and laid in the grave by the side of her sainted mother & brother. . . .
October 17th 1861.
It has rained incessantly all day. I could not get to see Susan C— laid in her last resting place by the side of her brother that I loved so well.32 I was anxious to go for that dear Mother’s sake, whom I loved as a relative, a friend, and most of all as a Sister. . . .33 O how often does my mind recur to those happy times when she and I would meet to talk of our blessed Redeemer, tell each other of our hopes and fears, joys and conflicts, and sing praises to God for his goodness & mercy. Eight years her body has been mouldering in the grave, and yet she still lives in my memory. . . .
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Notes:
[Click on footnote number to return to text.]
1 Mary accepted, as have many, the curious calculations of the Anglican Archbishop of Armagh, James Ussher (1581-1656), who computed the exact date of creation by adding up the ages of the Old Testament patriarchs. He placed the beginning of time on the 23rd October 4004 BC. Martin Luther had put it at 3960 BC. (I do not think Mary’s choice of words is a deliberate pun.)
2 The unification of Italy under Garibaldi and King Victor-Emmanuel was almost a decade in the future, and the Bishop of Rome, Pope Pius IX, still wielded temporal authority over central Italy.
3 Lincoln’s detractors made much of his inauspicious trip to Washington. During one stage of the journey he wrapped a plaid shawl about his shoulders, giving rise to the story that he was disguised as an old woman.
4 According to Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase & Fable, “It is said that in 1735, in a case of criminal libel, the only counsel who would accept the defense was Andrew Hamilton, the famous Philadelphia barrister, who obtained his client’s acquittal in the face of apparently irrefutable evidence, and charged no fee. In New England there was a saying that three Philadelphia lawyers were a match for the Devil.” A wonderful old phrase.
5 Cotton Mather (1662-1728) was one of a prominent family of Puritan divines who were active in the theocracy of early Massachusetts. His obsessive interest in witchcraft led his protégé, the new Governor, Sir William Phips, to instigate the now infamous Salem witch trials in 1692.
6 Mary’s low opinion of Lincoln’s intelligence was symptomatic of the vilification of political opponents typical of the era.
7 Mary’s description of the illness is too vague for identification, but the recurrent chills suggest malaria or undulant fever (brucellosis).
8 Although there had been a few shots fired before, the Confederate bombardment on the Federal garrison in Charleston harbor on 12 April is universally regarded as the beginning of the Civil War. Major Robert Anderson surrendered the fort to Gen. P. G. T. Beauregard’s forces the next day. An invaluable resource for making sense of the events of the next four years is E. B. Long, with Barbara Long, The Civil War Day by Day: An Almanac, 1861-1865.
9 Song of Solomon 2:3.
10 This passage is the only reference Mary makes to the ecstatic element of her religious beliefs.
11 In hindsight, little more than preliminary skirmishes. Bethel Church, Arlington Mills, and Fairfax Courthouse, near Washington, and Grafton and Phillipi in the pro-Union area that became West Virginia.
12 The Battle of First Manassas (known as First Bull Run to the North) began at 5:00 a.m. Whether or not this fact was communicated with the troops in Cincinnati is not known. There had been no actions of note in the preceding days.
13 Details of Manassas had become available.
14 A daughter of Julius Willis Clarkson (1792-1859) and Polly Strode (1792-1875). She was born about 1822 and died in 1874. (See above, 29 Mar 1859.)
15 Abram Sr. (1788- ) and Mary (Robinson) Stansifer (1795?- ). (See below, 2 Feb 1863.)
16 Not identified; perhaps they were visiting.
17 Mary Stansifer had two sons of an age to “go South” to Rebel Army recruiting centers just over the Tennessee state line: Woodford (1832?- ?), though married with children, did join Co. B, 4th Kentucky Cavalry. The youngest boy, John Milton (1835?-1878), also served with the CSA as a captain on staff duty. [See Rouse, 277-278.] (See below, 2 Feb 1863.)
18 Although Mary and most of her friends favored the Southern cause, opinion in Kentucky was strongly divided, and the state was officially neutral. The state government had been almost paralyzed by divided loyalties, with groups ranging from ardent secessionists to militant loyalists jockeying for control. (Mary’s cousin, Francis Marion Bristow (1804-1864), a former Congressman, was active in the pro-Union peace movement, assailed from both extremes.) On June 20th, Kentucky held special Congressional elections, which were boycotted by Southern sympathizers; the Unionists swept nine out of ten seats. On August 5th, elections for the state legislature gave similar results: 76-24 in the House, 27-11 in the Senate. [Lowell H. Harrison, The Civil War in Kentucky, 10-11.]
19 Angeline E. Stansifer (1827?- ), an unmarried daughter. (See below, 5 Sep 1863.)
20 Near Walton, about six miles south of Union, perhaps longer by road.
21 It did. Unlike the Methodists, who also split but eventually reunited, the Baptists remain divided along regional lines.
22 Elizabeth was the third of four daughters of Manoah Baskett Clarkson and Mildred M. Kendrick. (See above, 27 Mar 1855.)
23 Nannie Dickerson Bristow (1861-1913). She survived childhood to grow up and marry in 1906 James Lynn Frazier (1848-1932), a Boone County neighbor.
24 Lincoln allowed the Confederates to violate Kentucky’s self-proclaimed neutrality by making the first armed move into the Commonwealth (on 3 September, when Gen. Leonidas Polk occupied Columbus on the Mississippi River). Lincoln then ordered Federal troops into action, and Ulysses S. Grant occupied Paducah two days later.
25 The seat of Harrison County, about 30 miles northeast of Lexington and 50 south of Covington.
26 In the mid-1800s one didn’t take the train; one took the cars. Reuben’s father-in-law, Gen. Leonard Stephens, in a letter to his brother, William, dated 18 October, described the wreck:
Reuben Bristow in returning from Cynthiana about four weeks since got very badly injured by a collision on the RailRoad & has been pretty much helpless since, until within a few days now, he had been riding round a little. His legs were caught between two of the cars, & it is a mistery that they were not crushed off. One of them was badly mashed, tho I suppose no bones broken. There were others badly injured & one man a conductor killed dead & one so badly hurt as to die in a short time. The rest as I understand are all recovering.
[Stephens Letters, 49.]
The rail line, originally known as the Lexington & Covington Rail Road, was built at a cost of $5 million, and opened in 1854. On the 29th of August, 1861, shortly before the wreck in which Reuben was injured, Southern sympathizers sabotaged the line, which was used to transport supplies to Camp Dick Robinson, a U S Army recruit depot south of Lexington, by setting fire to a bridge near Cynthiana. A watchman was killed. [Kentucky Statesman, 10 Sep 1861.] Unfortunately I could find no surviving newspaper account of the incident in which Reuben was injured. Many Kentucky papers ceased publication during the war, either suppressed by Union authorities or unable to retain a staff or procure supplies.
27 Reuben’s second son, James Jerome Bristow (1840-1870) together with a close neighbor, William Corlis Respess (1837-1910), who was a cousin of Georgia Corlis, Julius L. Bristow’s first wife, both in their twenties, set out on the 9th of October from near Independence with some like-minded young men to join up with the CSA. The young men were headed to Bowling Green, Kentucky, which had been occupied since 18 September by the Confederates. Unfortunately, the group of would-be recruits was apprehended three weeks later by some Home Guards at the Van Meter farm in Clark County, and the boys spent the next several months enjoying Yankee hospitality at as prisoners of war at Camp Chase, Ohio. Their capture was reported in The Covington Journal, 2 Nov 1861, 3.
Willie married Jerome’s sister Catherine (who was known as “Bit” from her small size) in December 1862. He managed to slip through the lines and return to Kenton County and visit family. He was present for the birth of their first child, which they named after Jerome. See below, 16 Sep 1863.
Jerome served out the war with the 2nd Kentucky Cavalry (Duke’s) Regiment. The only surviving records show that he enlisted 10 Sep 1862 in Lexington, while the city was temporarily occupied by the Rebel Army. [See Kentucky Adjutant General’s Report, 580, 594.]
On that occasion he was joined by many of their Boone and Kenton neighbors, much to the joy of the Confederate commander, General Edmund Kirby Smith. He wrote his wife from Lexington, “I am well and have the most enthusiastic reception in Ky. — the whole population is turning out in mass. . . . Recruits are flocking to me by thousands.” [James L. McDonough, War in Kentucky: from Shiloh to Perryville, 150.] The Confederate success proved short-lived. In spite of installing an alternative, evanescent state government in Frankfort, they were unable to hold any significant portion of the Commonwealth.
28 She was a granddaughter of Mary’s Uncle Anselm Clarkson. Her father, Edward Trabue Clarkson (1807-1872), was a successful merchant in Covington. Her mother, Elizabeth (Price) Clarkson, had died in 1854. Susan was about seventeen when she died.
29 Mary Elizabeth Bristow (1842-1901), Reuben and Statira’s eldest daughter. She married her own Rebel, Thomas Jefferson Childress (1836-1908) on 10 Feb 1866. He had been a lieutenant in Jessee’s Kentucky Mounted Rifles.
30 The following announcement appeared in the Covington Journal of 20 Aug 1859:
|
The White Haven Female Institute This Institution, located near Union, Boone Co., Ky., will be opened for the reception of students, on Monday, September 12th, 1859.
E. M. Cotton, Principal. |
The school did not entirely escape the turmoil of the war. It was invaded by Federal Home Guards, an event recounted in “The White Haven Story,” a paper read before the Christopher Gist Historical Society, excerpted in William A. Fitgerald, The Civil War in Boone County, 14. The name at least survived: an 1883 map does show a White Haven about a mile south of the town of Union.
31 Thanks to Susan Berry Levey, who posted a note to the Boone County Rootsweb list, the location of the Manoah Clarkson family graveyard has been identified at last. Susan spotted Manoah’s tombstone in what is now the 10000 block of Cedarwood Drive, just off Frogtown Road, southeast of Union. None of the stones of the other family members survive, but his bears the inscription: Manaoh B Clarkson / Born Apr 29 1810 / Died Oct 13 1846.
32 The E. T. Clarkson family are buried in Linden Grove Cemetery in Covington. If Susan had a separate marker it has not survived. Neither did that of her brother, who has not been identified. Susan had six brothers.
33 Elizabeth (Price) Clarkson, above.
