Mary Brown Davis,
Journalist, Feminist,
and Social Reformer
By
Jeanne Humphreys
May 23, 1939
(Attempts to contact
the author have failed. She was in the 1940 Knox County census with a birth year of 1917 - 2012)
The news
that an old plantation in Fauquier County, Virginia, had been destroyed by the
ravages of war came as a keen disappointment to a lonely woman in Chicago,
whose birthplace it had been. Even the
grove of locust trees, which had been her favorite haunt in childhood, was
destroyed. Here Mary Brown Davis was
born in 1800.
Some of
Mrs. Davis fondest memories lead back to these plantation days. It was here that General and Mrs. Jackson,
the dearest friends her family had, visited.
Mrs. Davis recalling Jackson many years later said, “The General would
take me on his knee, and tell me deed of love, of greatness and glory, which
fired my young heart with principles which will be lasting as life.
Mrs. Davis
could never look back on her childhood without remembering her old Mammy and
nurse, Aunt Jenny, whom she called the guardian of her infancy, and her
faithful and endeared friend, although a servant of the family. It seemed that Mrs. Davis last tie with old
Virginia was broken when she received word in October 1859, that her old nurse,
then an aged colored woman, had passed away.
In this
mountain valley home, Mary Brown’s environment was such that it is not at all
difficult to understand why she devoted such a great amount of effort to the
poor in her later life. Her own views on
this were as follows:
How often do the scenes
through which I am called in my missionary capacity to pass remind me of the
little poem I learned around our old hearthstone in Fauquier County, Virginia,
commencing thus:
Pithy the sorrows of a poor old man,
Whose trembling g limbs have bro’t him to your door
Whose days have dwindled to the shortest span:
Oh, give relief and heaven will bless your store
That there was a great deal
of sentiment attached to her old home is proved by the following, which Mrs.
Davis wrote as spring was coming in 1854:
How this season carries the
mind back to the springtime of life when all in prospective was buoyant with
birth hope. When the mountains of our early
home were clad in verdure, the valleys sent forth music and sweetness, and our
hearthstone was surrounded by loved ones now gone from us forever.
When Mary Brown was still a
child, she went to live with her aunt in Alexandria, which was then a part of
the district known as the “Ten Miles Square”. She was living here when
Washington DC was burned during the War of 1812. Of this she said:
I well remember the
confusion, the clang of arms, the booming of cannon, and the lurid flames as
they burst from the capitol on that fearful night when the haughty British had
possession of Washington and Alexandria in the War of 1812, although I was then
in the innocence and carelessness of childhood.
Here Mary Brown early
showed her literary talent by writing secretly for The Kaleidoscope, an
Alexandrian newspaper. This was
suspected by a young man, Samuel Davis, who had come to Alexandria in
1817. He had been an apprentice to the
printing business at an early age in New Jersey. After traveling and working in New York, he
came south and was employed in a printing office in Alexandria. Mary became interested in Davis, who was
advancing by his talents. It so happened
that Davis lived next door to Mary, and he was always sitting by his window
when she was at hers. This was noticed
by Mary’s observing and aristocratic aunt who forbade Mary to speak to
him. Before Mary returned to her
childhood home, she gave him the poem “Melancholy”. By her cousin who was friendly with Davis,
Mary received copies of Cowper’s poems and “Lay of the Last Minstrel”. It was not long before letters from Samuel
Davis were finding their way to the country post office of Salem, Virginia.
This account of her
courtship was written by Mrs. Davis herself in An Original Tale. It was affirmed by the editor of the Oquawka
Spectator, who was an old friend of Mrs. Davis.
Speaking of this story, J. B. Patterson said:
We know this to be true,
having in our minds eye the heroine of the narrative.
After her marriage, Mrs.
Davis helped her husband, who was then editing the Winchester Republican with
J. B Patterson of the grand affair that it was to set up the President’s
Message in the old post office on Main Street in Winchester, Virginia.
Col Patterson came west in
1832. Samuel Davis remained in Virginia,
but not in Winchester. He became the
editor of the Wheeling Gazette. Mrs.
Davis gave the following account of life in Wheeling:
Well do I remember some
eighteen or twenty years ago, reading in our own paper, The Wheeling Gazette,
in Wheeling, Virginia, of the village of Chicago situated on Lake Michigan at
the mouth of Chicago creek. How little
we know our future destinies-and it is well for us that we do not. The writer was then a leader in the society
of that gay city contending with wise men as to the improprieties of lottery
gambling. Little did she dream that in
less than twenty years, that small village would be a great city and afford
here a home where, by her pen, she would eke out a scanty support.
In 1837, Mrs. Davis and
four of her sons immigrate to the West.
Her husband and oldest son have preceded them, and after a disappointing
attempt to set up a paper in Cassville, Wisconsin, they settled in Peoria.
Mrs. Davis lived in Peoria
from 1837 to 1849. She was very happy
here and always spoke of “Peoria, that
lovely city of my former happy and prosperous home.”
In Peoria, Mrs. Davis
worked, as she did wherever she was, for the poor and downtrodden. After 1849, whenever it was possible, she
would visit Peoria, where she would see many familiar faces and landmarks.
After the death of her
husband, which occurred in the late 1840s, Mary Brown Davis moved to Galesburg,
where she lived from 1849 to 1853. She
spoke of Galesburg as “that beautiful seed of science and literature where the
muses love to linger.”
In Galesburg, Mrs. Davis
took a great interest in Knox College, which she pronounced as good an
institution as any in the state. She
spoke also of the forming of the Gnothautii Society and of attending a debate
in February 1850. She criticized Onslow
Peters of Peoria for speaking ad the Commencement of the free institutions and
great national privileges, and seemingly forgetting that there were three
million who didn’t own themselves.
After attending Exhibition
Week at Knox, she described some of the events of that week. Some of them were the Baccalaureate sermon by
Professor Blanchard to the second graduating class in the Female Department,
examination in Stowe’s Introduction to the Study of the Bible, and Butler’s
Analogy, debate between two young ladies on Woman’s Rights, and the orations by
the Preparatory class, one of which was given by her youngest son on the Art of
Printing. She felt that Galesburg was bound to go ahead because of its good
institutions, good society and its enterprising men and women.
The tree and on-half years
in Galesburg, Mrs. Davis devoted to laboring for “Truth and Charity”. Also during this time, she was a
correspondent for the Oquawka Spectator.
Suddenly, without warning,
Mrs. Davis decided in February 1853, to move to Henry, Illinois, until spring
when she would move on to Chicago. She
gave no reason for this, only saying that it was not because she was weary of
the seat of science and literature and refined society of Galesburg.
Chicago became Mrs. Davis’s
home from the spring of 1853 until 1864, where she was still living when her
last letter to the Oquawka Spectator was published. Here as a boarder, she was
sometime s lonely. However, she seldom had time for loneliness, because her
days were well filed with her walks among the lowly. Her activities among the poor will be
discussed more fully later, but here may be mentioned the incidents of the day,
September 7, 1857, as illustrative of her daily activities. She was up early for a walk along the lakeshore. Here where she usually met may a poor person,
this day she saw a group gathered around an emigrant, whose baby had died on
the way over. As the emigrant didn’t know what to do with the body, and one of
the curious onlookers would offer their aid Mary Brown Davis took him to the
city authorities. The forenoon was taken
up by visiting poor families. On one
visit she happened to meet Aunt Polly, an old negro servant or a relative. Aunt Polly was now free, but she confided to
Mrs. Davis that she was not so happy as she had been as a slave in
Virginia. In the afternoon, Mrs. Davis
visited the reform school and in the evening she enjoyed a stroll by moonlight.
Even though earning her own
living by her pen, and in spite of illness, Mrs. Davis still had time for
visits to the poor, the reform school, religious work, and temperance
reform. These will be discussed more
fully.
The Davis family is made up
of interesting and remarkable characters.
Mary Brown’s husband, Samuel H. Davis, was a notable newspaper
editor. Very little is known about his
early life except that before his arrival in Alexandria, he had been an
apprentice to the printing business at an early age in New Jersey. Leaving his master, he traveled and worked in
New York, and then came to Alexandria, where he was employed in printing
office. While working in Alexandria, he
received a letter from Georgia inviting him to conduct a political press
there. However, just at this time, he
was successful in his courtship of Mary Brown. After his marriage, S. H. Davis
with J. B. Patterson edited the Winchester Republican. In 1832, J. B. Patterson came West, so Samuel
Davis started a paper of his own, The Wheeling Gazette, in Wheeling,
Virginia. This paper he edited, with the
help of his wife, from 1832 to 1835.
In 1835, Samuel Davis, with
his oldest son, Kirk, started west. He
went to Cassville, Wisconsin, to establish the first press in the Territory of
Wisconsin and to realize a fortune. His
family was to follow later in 1837, meeting with disappointments and losses,
Mr. Davis left in disgust to seek a western home elsewhere. Mrs. Davis, on a
trip up the river in 1852, saw Cassville and called it “a sad relic of
speculation and disappointed hopes.”
In looking for a western
home elsewhere, Samuel Davis found Peoria.
In 1837, he purchased the Illinois Champion and Peoria Herald from James
C. Armstrong and Jacob Sherwalter, and changed the name of the paper to Peoria
Register and North Western Gazetteer.
The first number was issued April 7 1837. By 1838, the paper was well under way, and once
because of the Editor’s sickness, one side of the whole edition, consisting of
forty-five quires was worked off by tow sons of Mr. Davis, added sixteen and
ten.
Even though Samuel Davis
was past middle age when he took over the paper, it was acknowledged as one of
the ablest papers published in the state while he was editor. He built the
building in which his office was located and called the street on which his
office was located, “Printers’ Alley”.
Besides being an able
writer, he was a man of great force of character. He was a member of the Presbyterian Church
and a leader in the Sunday School and other church work.
For the first four years,
the paper was neutral in politics. In
1840, it became Whig and supported Harrison for the presidency. Mr. Balance
says that it was mainly an attempt at a neutral paper, and that it became a
strong advocate of Whig principles as soon as a Democratic paper made its
appearance.
Mr. Davis sold his paper to
Samuel and William butler in 1842, but he continued as editor until an event
took place, which severed his connection with the paper.
On February 3 1843, there
occurred a notice in the Peoria Register of an Anti-slavery meeting that was to
be held on February 13, in the Main Street Presbyterian Church for the purpose
of organizing and electing officers.
While the meeting was in session, the Pro-slavery men, who had held a
meeting on their own prior to this one, came to the Anti-slavery meeting and
said if the meeting was not peacefully dissolved, they would do it by
violence. Mr. Davis had been at neither
meeting. He was an ardent Whig and at
this time did not favor the doctrines of the abolitionists, yet when he heard
of the outrage committed on the Anti-slavery men, he proposed to publish their
vindication. He immediately spoke to the
proprietors concerning his intentions to condemn the Pro-slavery men’s
action. The proprietors told him that
since the paper was opposed in principle to the abolitionists, there would be
nothing said on either side. Davis then
informed them he would have nothing more to do with the paper.
After the break with the
proprietors, Samuel Davis issued a pamphlet, giving a full account of the
incident, which he read at an Anti-slavery convention held in Farmington,
Illinois, on May 8 1843. He Mad it clear
that he was not an Abolitionist but a Whig, and had issued this pamphlet in
defense of the rights of free speech and of freedom of the press.
In 1844, the Davis family
took part in an Anti-slavery festival held in Galesburg on the Fourth of
July. In the absence of one of the
speakers, Samuel Davis gave an address. By this time, largely through the
influence of the Pro-slavery men’s violence, he had accepted abolitionist
views.
In March 1846, S. H. Davis
was asked by some of the prominent men of the Liberty party to run for Governor
on the Liberty ticket. At their request,
he did publicly announce his acceptance of the anti-slavery movement and the
Liberty Party, but he said that he wished he hadn’t been suggested as a
candidate and that the convention would nominate someone else.
Illustrative of the prominence
of this family in Peoria and of the courage that it took to be in an
antislavery movement of that time, is the incident, which occurred in June
1846.
An article appeared in the
Western Citizen criticizing the behavior of a prominent figure in Peoria life,
who was the leader of the anti-abolitionists, and who had been one of the chief
figures in the anti-abolitionist riot of February 1843.
One day, Samuel Davis was
sitting in a chair on the sidewalk in front of the building next door, when he
was accosted by this person about whom the article had been written, and was
accused of having written it. This
person attacked Davis, who couldn’t defend himself because he was afflicted
with arthritis. A friend of Davis,
attempting to assist him, was restrained by a friend of the attacker. A crowd gathered, and none interfered to help
p Davis, who was painfully attacked and pushed up against a window, where the
assailant tried to gouge out his eyes.
James Scott Davis tried to come to his father’s assistance with a brick
bat, but was stopped and caned over the head by one of the men opposed to
Davis. Finally, tow respected citizens
intervened, and Davis escaped.
This brutal attack well
marked the turning point of abolition in Peoria. Sensible citizens couldn’t approve of such
action; it was in this manner that the abolitionist cause advanced. Legal steps were taken. Of the tow men who had assisted the attacker,
one fled, and the other was given the maximum fine permitted by law for such an
assault. Davis was concerned about the
punishment of the prominent anti-abolitionist and went to see him. Davis agreed not to push charges against him
in return for a promise never to lead or subscribe to any anti-abolitionist
demonstration in Peoria. Also included
in the agreement was the provision that the keys to the County Court House
would be made available whenever an anti-slavery group in Peoria wished to hold
a meeting. Up to this time, the finding
of a meeting place, either public or in a church, had been fruitless, and it
had been necessary to hold meetings in an upstairs room of the home of Moses
Pettengill, a prominent merchant and anti-slavery man.
Through this incident, the
anti-slavery cause in Peoria became much more popular. It was because of incidents such as the one
just described, that men like Davis, who had been opposed to or indifferent
toward abolitionists and their doctrines, were added to the ranks of the
abolitionists.
Samuel Davis died soon
after this. There is evidence that his
wife wrote a memoir of her husband, but it’s where abouts is unknown
today. On this, The Oquawka Spectator
said”
M. B. D. has written a
memoir of her husband and ahs issued proposals for its publication. From a long acquaintance with the late Mr.
Davis and his estimable lady, we have no doubt the memoir will be highly
interesting.
Henry Kirk White Davis,
oldest son of Mr. and Mrs. S. H. Davis, had helped his father on the Peoria
Register and the North Western Gazetteer, and he knew the printing business. After
the death of his father, he formed a partnership with Thomas J. Picket, who had
purchased the Peoria Register from Butler.
These two men started The Daily Register June 28 1848, but it was short
lived. They also started the Champion, the second Peoria daily, the first
number of which was issued December 13 1849.
The paper continued until January 26 1850 when an explosion occurred
which wrecked the building and killed tow men.
Davis purchased Picket’s interest and undertook to revive the Register
and The Champion. He did succeed in
publishing the latter, though it was reduced in dimension and printed from an
old worn out type of large size.
Finally, he was forced to quit, and after selling the material remaining
gin his office, he left town.
In 1851, the Oquawka
Spectator announced the following:
H.K. Davis, a young
gentlemen who we have know from his infancy, has established the Illinois State
Bulletin at Bloomington.
The bulletin was described
as a large double medium sheet, and as being democratic in its politics.
In 1853, Kirk left for
Missouri. There he fought during the
war, and when he came to see his mother in Chicago in 1863, he was publishing
the Lexington Union. This paper was “unconditional
Union” in politics, which in Missouri meant anti-radical. The Lexington Union
was accepted by The Oquawka Spectator in its exchange, and it was looked dup on
as a paper edited with ability.
Southwick Davis was the
second son. He also helped his father on
the Peoria Register and knew newspaper work.
After graduating from Knox College in 1846, he edited The North Western
Gazetteer 1850-1851; this was neutral in politics. From 1854 to 1855, he with W. H. Holcomb
edited The Galesburg Free Democrat. When
he edited the North Western Gazetteer, he found that there was some difficulty
in not having the post office included in the name. That was one reason for the name Galesburg
Free Democrat. A more important reason
was so that it might be know that it was an anti-slavery paper.
The tone of his writing is
well illustrated by the following selections from his editorials, which set
forth his attitude toward slaver:
As we are now to have a
paper we are resolved on having an organization. The cause of political opposition to slavery
in the central part of our state has suffered fro the want of organization.
After some consultation it
is determined to invite tall those who are resolved to vote steadily against
the ascendancy of the slave power in this country, to meet at the Lecture Room
of First Presbyterian Church on Tuesday, Jan 24, to consult and act for the
furtherance of the principle of Free Democracy in counties within the
circulation of this paper. It will be
perceived that the meeting is set for the afternoon of the second day of the
winter examinations of several departments of Knox College when there are
always a large number of strangers in town.
Little was found about
James Scott, the third son, except that he graduated from Knox College in 1852
and was present at the Republican Convention in Chicago in 1860.
Robert, The fourth son, was
afflicted in some way and he was never well.
For this reason, he lived with his mother. On Thanksgiving Day in 1854, when he was
nineteen or twenty years old, Robert was quite severely burned. He accidentally upset a lamp while
reading. Although his mother tried to
save him and burned her hands in the attempt, the flames were put out by two
boarders.
There is evidence that this
son was very charitable. He frequently accompanied his mother on her trips, and
did some work among the poor himself.
The youngest son of Mr. and
Mrs. Samuel H. Davis was R. McKee Davis.
In 1852, he was in the Preparatory class at Knox College where he wrote
and delivered an oration on the Art of Printing. He was living up to the example set by his
father, mother and brothers.
By 1860, R. McKee Davis was
editing The Onarga Mercury in Onarga, Illinois.
Here on September 19, 1860, he married Carrie E. Norwell. On January 23, 1861, Mrs. Davis received a
dispatch from her son saying that his house, furniture, clothing, and library
had been destroyed by fire. Upon her
return from sending a letter of condolence, Mrs. Davis found that there had
been a fire in her room, and her trunk of clothes, papers of value, a bookcase
and the files of The Oquawka Spectator, New York World, and Onarga Mercury had
been destroyed.
In Jul 1862, R McKee
enlisted in the Union Army. His wife and
child went to Chicago to live with Mrs. Davis, who then went back to
housekeeping after a vacation of seventeen years.
In the early part of Jun
1863, Mrs. Davis received the following letter:
Mrs. M. B. Davis:
At the request of your son.
R. McKee Davis, I send you a few lines.
He was wounded on Friday May 22, during the bloody battle of that
day. He fell while making a brilliant
charge on the enemy’s works. The left
thigh received a shot which shivered the bone-the ball having passed quite
through. The limb was amputated on
Saturday and now twenty-four hours after, he is comfortable, resting easy, and
is cheerful. He desires me to say to you
and his wife that all his trust is in the Lord, and that he enjoys the peace of
the Savior.
As soon as she heard that her
son was wounded, Mrs. Davis started south to Vicksburg. Hearing of his death, she went no farther
than Hoyleton, Illinois, where her son, Southwick, was then living. R Mc Kee Davis died May 27, 1863 at the age
of twenty-six.
Mrs. Davis was very sad over
the death of her son. Her letters to The
Oquawka Spectator became fewer and farther between until they stop altogether
in May 1864. She tried to comfort
herself with the realization that she had lost only one son, while many mothers
both in the North and in the South had lost all.
Colonel J. B Patterson and
his son, E. H. N. Patterson were such close friends of the Davis family that
they may almost be considered a part of that family. J. B. Patterson was born in Virginia, and
while still a boy, he moved to Winchester.
In Winchester, the Daviess and the Petersons
became close friends. This friendship
continued in Illinois where both families moved, Mr. Patterson in 1832 followed
by his family in 1833, and. H. Davis in 1835 followed by his family in
1837. Both men became great pioneer
newspaper editors in Illinois.
Mrs. Davis’ letters from
Chicago were filled with personal remarks to and of the editor of the
Spectator. For instance, she spoke of
them as being one mind in politics when they met in the printing office, family
circle, or around the family board.
Colonel Patterson started
The Oquawka Spectator in 1848 and continued it alone or associated with his son
or grandson for thirty-five years. While
living in Chicago, Mrs. Davis made occasional trips to Oquawka and was always
happy to see this dear editor friend.
Mary Brown Davis thought
very highly of E. H. N Patterson, who was born in Winchester, Virginia, in
1828. After attending Jubilee College in
1845, and later Knox College, E. H. N. became Assistant Editor of his father’s
paper. When he was Junior Editor, E. H.
N. made occasional trips to Chicago, where he would see Mrs. Davis who enjoyed
his visits very much. E. H. N. was a
person of great ability; he possessed a remarkably fine and clear style. Shortly after he became Assistant Editor of
the Spectator, his plans for a great literary magazine were completely
destroyed by the untimely death of Edgar Allen Poe. At the time of Poe’s death, E. H. N wrote the
following, which shows his keen disappointment in the destruction of his plans,
and is representative of his excellent style:
Had he lived, arrangement
had been completed by which he was, next year, to have been placed at the head
of a large Magazine, which would have been entirely under his control, This
statement may surprise even many of his friend, but it is nevertheless
true. We are personally knowing to the
whole arrangement. But death has removed
him from us, and we can only lament the sad event, which has deprived us of a
noble and eminent man. His life was a
sad succession of trials and disappointment, but death has released his soul,
from it s thralldom to live forever with its Creator above.
In the spring of 1850, E.
H. N. left for California. After a try
at mining, he got a place on the editorial Staff of the Placer Times, by
writing a sketch of his trip across the plains.
Later he returned to Oquawka via Panama, very much emancipated from
sickness. He returned to Colorado in
1859. He was known by his pen name,
Sniktau, and became famous. When he died
in April 1880, he was Editor and Proprietor of the Georgetown Miner.
For a southern woman, Mrs.
Davis’ views on slavery and the Civil War were quite remarkable. She was
brought up on a plantation where slaves were decently treated, yet she
championed the anti-slavery cause. She
might be called a third Grimke sister, a much more mild one, however.
In 1839, she contributed a
series of anti-slavery articles, entitles The Cause of the Oppressed, to The
Genius of Universal Emancipation. She
also contributed an article, Cruelty of Slavery, to the same paper.
In the summer of 1842, The
Western Citizen published an article on the Cause of the Oppressed, and a
little later her Early Impressions of Slavery, based on her own experiences,
was published. For the Western Citizen,
September 16, 1842, she wrote a story of a slave in her characteristic
sentimental manner. From 1842 to July
1846, M. B. D contributed articles to this paper dealing with some phase of
slavery.
Mrs. Davis was an organizer
and the secretary of the Peoria Ant-Slavery Society, which was organized by the
women, July 27, 1843.
A little later the
Galesburg women organized one and the two societies began a movement for a
state organization.
Mrs. Davis wrote the
call for a convention, which met May 23, 1844 at Peoria.
Forty-five women attended this convention of
Which M. B. D. was secretary.
A project
for the education of negro children was formed.
Just as her husband had
been pulled along into the anti-slavery cause by forces out of his control, so
Mrs. Davis’ enthusiasm for the cause was dampened by forces out of her
control. Garrison was this force. She, as an abolitionist, did not want him
identified with that cause. She said:
Garrison has gone into
error and fanaticism, calculated to injure and cast odium upon the sacred cause
of brotherhood and equality.
She went on to say that he, and others like
him, didn’t regard the sanctity of the Sabbath, or the organization of
religious or political bodies.
She
admired the leaders of Free Democracy, Seward, Chase, Stephens, and Giddings,
who, she said, showed to the world what Anti-Slavery was in its brightest,
noblest form.
There was a colored
convention held in Chicago in Oct 1953, for the purpose of devising the best
plan of elevating the colored race in the free states. There were more than one hundred Negroes
present, some of whom Mrs. Davis had known in Virginia. She commended this convention and its cause,
saying:
There is note of that
bitter acrimony, that low abuse of the slaveholder, that denunciatory spirit
which too often characterizes and utterly spoils the convention among the white
men who profess to espouse the cause of the slave.
Mrs. Davis believed that
the Negro should be free, but that he should be left to work out his own
development after the freedom was attained:
I am of the opinion that
since the colored people have been left to carry out their own plans of
elevation, and improvement, they have become much more enlightened and
elevated.
I am no fusionist in any sense
of the word.
Let the colored race, when
they become free, form their own plans, mark out their own course, sustain
their own institutions, churches, schools, and social customs, and they will
improve with very much rapidity.
They
are capable of self-improvement.
The
deportment, appearance, style of living, hotels, and high respectability of the
colored population of this and almost every other free city will prove this.
Upon another occasion, Mrs.
Davis wrote, “I love equality, but these tow races were never intended to
mingle.”
Sometimes M. B. D. became
quite discontented with the abolitionists and rated toward them just as she had
toward Garrison when she felt that he was not a true representative of the
anti-slavery cause. She didn’t want
those whom she disliked to be identified with the cause that meant so much to
her. Concerning this, she wrote:
I used to be a strong
abolitionist myself, and still am so far as right and truth is concerned, but
when intrigue and self promotion are the ruling motives, I say away with it.
She was still abolitionist
enough to regard the Fugitive Slave Act, which was passed as a concession to
the Southern States in 1850, as an undesirable law. Yet, she was so loyal to the national
government that she believed in its enforcement. Concerning this, she said:
I have often deprecated the
existence of such an act as the Fugitive Slave Act, and would oppose it by all
means; yet I can have no sympathy wit those persons, who regardless of law and
authority, offer resistance to those who are in discharge of their duty, for
where any act, however obnoxious, becomse3s a law, there must be officers whose
duty it is to see that such law is put in force.
Rejoiced would I be to have that law
repealed.
But, while it remains on the
statuette book, open rebellion against its execution seems to be wrong.
An uncle of this lady,
living in Alexandria, who lost fifty of his hundred slaves, believed that if a
slave could take care of himself and be better off than formerly, the overseer
should let him go in peace.
Later this
slaveholder’s son was cared for and sheltered by some of his father’s runaway
slaves, who had made their home in Philadelphia.
The Kansas Nebraska Bill of
1854 came as a great disappointment to Chicago.
The man whom they had claimed as their hero was attempting to repeal The
Missouri Compromise. Mrs. Davis followed
Chicago’s reaction closely, and she wrote:
Our city is full of
indignation at the Nebraska bill of S. A. Douglas and the attempt to repeal the
Missouri Compromise of 1820, and a meeting has been called the eighth of this
month to consider and protest against any action of congress for the repeal or
modification of an act which time and the public faith has made more sacred and
also gains the extension of slavery in any part of our widely extended
country.
This call is signed by many
hundreds of the oldest and most influential men of this city.
Mr. Douglas must feel somewhat disappointed
in the city of his home.
As to her own views on the
subject, Mrs. Davis hoped that the Missouri Compromise could never be repealed
and that the area of slavery would never be enlarged.
She could remember the agitation caused by
the introduction of that measure into congress.
She could remember that Bushrod Washington had praised it highly along
with other patriots of that day.
At this time; she expressed her attitude
toward the extension of slavery in the following manner:
Slavery is a great evil
entailed upon the south, having been thus entailed they know not how to get rid
of it, but let it not be entailed upon any other portion of our wide domain.
In the letter of October 4,
1860, Mrs. Davis gave a description of Seward’s reception into Chicago, and then
Douglas’ in contrast.
That she enjoyed
writing about politics, one can tell from the manner in which these letters
were written.
Yet she felt called upon
to make excuses fro writing about such, saying that politics was the only
subject of conversation in Chicago.
This
was a time, she felt, in which all should feel interested.
As to her own political
stand, she was quite reticent. Only one
hint was dropped:
I think of some of the noble braves who assembled there
in council, and selected for their ruler a chief of w well tried skill-and,
though he was not my choice, I cannot but venerate the wigwam.
Her views on the conflict
are very interesting and enlightening.
Her own viewpoint was expressed in the following:
There are a great many
southerners in Chicago, but few are secessionists.
All feel strongly attached to the South, and
are sensible that the South has some cause for complaint, yet never desire
disunion.
Mrs. Davis did have a
secessionist cousin in Chicago, who severely castigated her for having a flag
waving from her window.
Finding it difficult to
reconcile herself to the war, even though she believed that the South did not
have the right to secede, Mrs. Davis wrote the following:
In families where discords
and enmity prevails, every one admits that it is better to separate in peace,
and so it seems to me it should have been with two sections of the country but
the time is past now, and we must stand by our flag.
If our country had been
invaded by a foreign foe, the situation would have been different, but “the
assailants of our government, the insulters of our Flag, are our brothers, our
old friends and relatives.”
The only consoling though in her mind, which seemed to
justify warfare with one’s brother was that once Israel said, “Lord, shall we
go up against our brother, Benjamin?” and the Lard answered and said, “Go”.
It has already been
indicated that the memories of her old home in Virginia meant a great deal to
mars Davis. It grieved her no end to
know that the war was being fought in the region, which was almost “sacred
soil” to her.
Every inch of that region
around Bull Run, and indeed the whole of Virginia from Alexandria to Wheeling
on the west, and Richmond of the east, is as familiar to me as the way from my
boarding house to church is now.
and to
think that this beautiful sacred soil must be drenched in blood shed by
brethren in moral sanguinary warfare.
Another great source of
grief was that people in Chicago felt that to be a southerner was a crime
without stopping to concise anything but geography.
Returning to Chicago in the
spring of 1862 from Hoyleton, Illinois, where she had been visiting her son,
Southwick, Mrs. Davis decided to visit the prisoners of war. On attempting to obtain a pass, she was told
that she was known as a southern lady with strong attachments to her native
state, and although she was well known as a philanthropist and a Christian
lady, it was deemed prudent for her not to visit the prisoners. Mrs. Davis wrote:
We left feeling that to be
a Southerner was a crime, no matter how loyal the heart might be.
We love the Union and the dear old flag, if
we were born near Bull Run.
Mr. Lincoln’s famous
diplomatic move, the Emancipation Proclamation, was criticized by Mrs. Davis
because she fled that I t was unconstitutional, and because it made no
provision for the freedmen. Concerning
this she stated:
Mr. Lincoln is a noble,
honest, good man, but Mr. Lincoln can err as well as the rest of humanity.
He has erred, we think in his recent
Emancipation Proclamation in as much as it seems to us certainly unconstitutional,
yet if our country is freed from the baneful influence of slavery, it will be a
great blessing to the white race.
We
fear, however, for the slaves.
What will
become of them?
Where will they go?
We are strongly opposed to slavery, yet we do
know that many of them deeply regret leaving their homes.
Mrs. Davis had hoped ever
since the war began, that it would come to a close before any of her family
would have to take up arms. However, R.
Mc Kee Davis, her youngest son, enlisted and was sent South. His death at the siege of Vicksburg came as
such a blow to his mother that she did not keep up her correspondence with The
Spectator, and consequently, her views on the rest of the war and the terrible
days of reconstruction after the war, which would be very valuable, are not
available.
Mary Brown Davis’ views on
intemperance and the Main Liquor Law are very interesting and most unusual for
a woman at that time.
Her reform work
along this line will be discussed later.
She was fully convince that intemperance was at the bottom of all the
crime in Chicago, and that the most effectual remedy would be the passage of
the Maine Liquor Law.
This law, first put in operation in Maine in
1815, prohibited the sale of intoxicating drinks under heavy penalties.
Such a law, or something equally stringent,
would regenerate Illinois, Mrs. Davis believed.
It was difficult to work for such a law when there were so many saloons
and tempercance papers were so hard to sustain.
Intemperance doubtless is
at the bottom of all this crime, and yet it is impossible to stem its
current.
Temperance papers cannot be
sustained.
From the days of The Battle
Axe, commenced by C. J. Sellon, to the present advent of The Maine Law
Alliance, which is struggling for a bare existence.
Temperance papers have been starved out,
while saloonkeepers flourish and get rich.
Mary Brown Davis was a
Feminist, and her views on Women’s Right s are most interesting. One phase of the Women’s Rights movement was
the Bloomer Costume which was adopted by Mrs. Amelia Bloomer to eliminate the
dragging skirts, and which was immediately accepted by Elizabeth Cady Stanton,
the champion of Marriage reform. It was
such a momentous occasion when Bloomers appeared in Galesburg for the first
time in June 1851, that The Oquawka Spectator noted the appearance. A sidelight from The Boston Post, which is
typical of the attitude of that day, accounted for the rapid progress of
Bloomers in the newspapers in the following fashion:
The Bloomer dress goes
ahead - in the newspapers – at a very rapid rate.
That’s because it has get legs to it.
It was even more startling
when the editors of the Spectator published an editorial saying that tow of
their most highly esteemed lady correspondents, M. B. D and Helen Heathcote,
were out in favor of the new costume. In
this same article, Mrs. Davis’ description of the Costume was included.
The upper garment fits
closely to the waist, with a skirt similar to a sack, reaching a little below
the knee, made of a dark material, with trousers of the same, made very full
and flowing, confined at the ankle by a band.
Mary Brown Davis too the
extremely broad view that the new costume was not in any degree a usurpation of
man’s habiliments, and that this style “a la Turk” was an improvement upon
street sweeping and the heavy burden of under garments.
The crusade against
slavery, intemperance, and women’s wrongs all arose at the same time. Mrs. Davis was a crusader against slavery,
intemperance, and women’s rights. However,
in regard to the later, she was not willing to go quite so far as her
outstanding contemporaries. It is
interesting to see how she felt toward some of the important women in the
movement. She heard Mrs. Bloomer speak
on the Rights and Wrongs of Women and on The Maine Liquor Law. Attired in full bloomer costume, Mrs.
Bloomer’s manner was pleasant and graceful according to M. B. D. Other observations and remarks called fort by
this occasion were:
We are an advocate on the
rights of women in a certain sense, and believe that our laws do not regard her
as she should be regarded.
We do feel
that our sex should not aspire to the pulpit, public platform, or polls.
They may edit and print newspapers, pursue,
at least among their own sex, the practice of medicine-but she was not intended
in senates or in courts to shine.
her own
views on women’s rights, as well as her opinions of Lucy Stone, were further
set forth aft hearing the latter speak:
Miss Lucy Stone spent some
time in the city, lecturing six different evenings to a large and respectable
audience.
She is a very extraordinary
woman, quite handsome, very eloquent, very graceful, and prepossessing in
appearance.
(She appeared in full
bloomer costume with short hair.)
Her
mission seems to be a good one – to elevate her own sex and place them on an
equal footing with men in education and capacities for earning a
livelihood.
So far I can go with her,
but to go in person to the ballot box, to ascend the sacred desk, or even the
public platform, I think is a little out of the sphere of the daughters of our
land or any other.
Any person who believed
that women should be able to work and earn their own livings in the 1850’s be
considered an advocate of women’s rights.
This was an age when women were told that a husband or his substitute
was the proper provider, and that adequate economic independence for them was
an impossible ideal. Perhaps it was
because Mrs. Davis was forced to earn her own living and because she knew what
hardships women had to face when earning their own livings, that made her
accept this unusual point of view a full realization of her position brought
forth the following comment:
Your correspondent begins
to realize some of the discomforts of the position of her sex. Not that she wishes to be numbered with the
strong minded, but she does feel that women should be permitted to get her living
in some other way, if capable, than by taking in sewing, teaching for a paltry
sum, or keeping boarders.
Here in this enlightened
city a woman may starve before the editor of a paper will employ her to do that
which she can perform as well as any man.
Could your correspondent obtain press and type she would advocate the
rights of women in this city and set the editors an example, which it would be
to their advantage to follow.
Mrs. Davis was very firm in
her belief that women should stay out of politics. Yet when the time came that politics was a
vital subject, she felt that she had a right to her own opinions. She had the following statement to make on
that subject:
As to politics in general,
I think it is a muddy pool in which women at least need not paddle, unless they
can like angles of old, stir the waters so as to impart a healing and gentle
influence; yet women have a right to their opinions, and can do good and
efficient service by wielding that power aright which the psess.
In considering the views of
this outstanding woman, those on the social conditions in Chicago from 1850 to
1860 certainly should not be omitted.
The condition that met her harshest criticism was the inequality of
justice.
Why should one man be sentenced
ten years for assault and robbery and another four years for murder.
There was no justification for such.
Yet she believed that capital punishment was wrong; she called it that
relic of barbarism, that system of legalized murder.
She also believed that the
rich nabobs who had money enough could stay the hand of justice.
“The Galvanized Aristocracy”, a most apt term applied by Mrs. Davis to
the aristocracy of one, met with her heartiest disapproval.
This class would go as far as to raise the
price of tickets for hearing Ole Bull and Bayard Taylor to keep out the
crowd.
Of this class Mrs. Davis said:
They have no time to enjoy
any of the social, literary, or religious intercourse so dear to human heart
when not care-hardened by love of money.
There is a great effort to establish and aristocracy, to draw a line of demarcation
between the classes.
She criticized the
unchristian spirit in this class of people because they did so little to
alleviate the suffering of the poor. She
condemned this spirit in the following manner:
How can the fashionable
professed Christians, members of fashionable churches, lavish so many thousands
of dollars in dress, equipage, parties, and perhaps worse, when they know that
there is so great an amount of suffering in the city?
Here was a woman who
realized that a great deal depended upon the poor and working classes.
I wish you to know that some
of our best, most intelligent, and efficient men and women are among the
working classes.
These are the men,
these are the women, who give tone and character to our country, and best
maintain our Republican institutions.
Giving a vivid idea of
conditions among the lower classes that were being overlooked by the nabobs Mrs.
Davis wrote:
They talk of the horrors of
slavery at the South but I am persuaded that the pen of Mrs. Stowe would fail
to draw a true picture of oppression and bondage as it exists in this northern
city of free principles.
Lastly among views, Mrs.
Davis’ philosophy of life should be considered.
The following could have been written only by a truly great person:
This is an important era in
the history of our world.
It is a privilege
to be actors in the great drama of life at the present if we live to any
purpose.
Such a philosophy leads
naturally to a consideration of the purpose to which the believer lived. Mary Brown Davis had her purposes firmly
fixed in mind, and she constantly strove to achieve them. One of her objectives in life was to be a
writer. As has been indicated before,
her pen was engaged a great deal of her time in worthy causes telling of her
work among the poor, the afflicted, and the unfortunate, urging others to work
for charity, and telling of conditions as they were and suggesting remedies.
M. B. D began her
journalistic work when she was a young lady living in Alexandria.
She wrote secretly for The Kaleidoscope, an
Alexandrian newspaper.
After her
marriage, she continued writing for newspapers, which belonged to her
husband.
Besides writing for them, she
helped in the printing of the Winchester Republican.
Even after she came West with her family, Mrs.
Davis helped on the Peoria Register.
To
show that she regarded this work as a literary honor, the following may be
quoted:
Next to having been a
helpmate for my husband in editing The Peoria Register, I regard it as the
greatest literary honor to know that I have been a correspondent of the
Spectator for nine years.
Her greatest period of
writing was done after the death of her husband, when she became a
correspondent for many newspapers.
Starting in 1848, she wrote for the Oquawaka Spectator until 1864.
She always signed her articles with her
initials, M. B. D.
Many times the
editors of this paper commented upon her writing ability, and they always spoke
of her as an esteemed correspondent.
On one occasion, she was paid the following
tribute:
Our Chicago correspondent
wields a most graphic pen.
Our readers
greatly admire her style, and her commendable industry in keeping them posted
up on matters and things in our state’s emporium.
We know her to be a lady of discrimination,
tact and accomplishments, and we should be truly sorry to receive her
communications less frequently than we do.
As to the type of writing
M. B D. did for the Spectator, her
letters of information about conditions in Chicago were the most numerous. Also published in this paper, were her
stories based on actual experiences in Chicago, reminiscences of Virginia days,
travel experiences, old Northwest Territory legends, and poetry.
Her best story based on
actual experiences in Chicago was the Dark Lantern, or Scenes and Sights in
Garden City.
The setting for this story
was “The Sands”, a notorious spot where Mrs. Davis spent many hours working as
a representative of the secret Police.
Stories based on reminiscences of life in
Virginia were often written by this never tiring correspondent.
Her Reminiscences,
Heirs of Glen Castle,
The Tree
Friends,
and The Lilly of the
Mountain of Streams,
were
stories of old Virginia days.
The Maid
of Maquokota, written for The Chicago Daily News and republished in The
Spectator, was a story of the old Northwest.
Her best travel writing was done in A Month
in Iowa, which is a brilliant description of that state in 1852.
The poem, Religion is An
Anchor to My Soul, not only shows that she had ability for writing poetry, but
also shows that she had a great deal of faith in God, and that she looked to
Him for courage and guidance:
What bears my drooping
spirit up,
As onward, onward still,
I tread the rugged path of
life,
and meet each coming ill.
Can’t it be that pleasure’s
siren voice
That tempts and lures me
on;
Away, away, thou’rt not my
choice,
I know thee not – begone.
Or is it Fame? Is it to win
The glory of a name?
Does high ambition dwell
within,
And my best thoughts
inflame?
True, I have an ambitious
soul,
And Fame, Indeed thou’rt
dear,
But, ah, thy thorny paths
are full
Of darkness and despair.
‘Tis gospel truth, alone
can cheer
And bouy my sinking soul:
Be this my shield-my
guiding star,
Mrs. Davis wrote for the
Galesburg Free Democrat while her son was editor.
These letters told about conditions in
Chicago.
The Keithsburg Observer also published her
letters, which were full of Chicago news.
She also wrote for The Monmouth Atlas and The
Western Citizen.
In Chicago, M. B. D. wrote
for Sloan’s Garden City,
The Times,
and the Pen and Pencil.
Concerning the latter periodical, The
Spectator had this to say:
The Pen and Pencil is the
title of a new literary paper just started in Chicago by Blair and Dawley.
The first number contains a beautiful story
from the pen of our esteemed friend and correspondent, Mrs. M. B. Davis.
It is a promising sheet, and we welcome it
upon our exchange list.
That she wrote for The
Mendota Press was made known by the following:
The Journal and Times made
very free with a letter of min written to The Mendota Press.
Yet I presume that all that was stated in
that letter can be substantiated.
It is almost inconceivable
how a woman of Mrs. Davis age and health, could carry on such an immense
correspondence, write stories, work for reforms, and yet spend the greater
portion of each day visiting the poor.
That she was an indefatigable worker is not to be questioned. By her writing for newspapers, M. B. D. contributed
to the cultural growth of which newspapers of that time gave evidence. The clarity of her writing is remarkable, and
her power of description is good.
By her epistolary style,
she succeeded in arousing an element of suspense. However, a criticism common
to frontier writers in general may be applied to Mrs. Davis; she didn’t use
sentiment sparingly enough.
In 1862, she
said that newspaper work had been a part of her life so long that she felt at
home no where else.
As has already been
mentioned, M.B. D. drew from incidents of every day life for her writing.
After visiting William Jackson, a murderer,
in the Chicago jail, she decided to write a sketch of his life.
She visited him for two months, studied his
character, and understood him thoroughly.
Shortly after his execution, she published this sketch.
It was not long before she
accused the Press, the Democrat, and the Tribune of making use of her pamphlet
illegally and of taking a copy of a picture, which it cost her twenty dollars
to get up.
Because the sale of the
pamphlet, which cost her one hundred and fifty dollars to publish, was injured
to such a great extent by these papers, she hardly realized expenses.
At the height of her
journalistic career when her story entitled The Dark Lantern was being
published in The Oquawka Spectator, Mary Brown Davis was accused of plagiarism
by Mr. Maggie, editor of the Oquawka Plaindealer.
He charged her with plagiarism in following
copy from The Mysteries of Paris by Eugene Sue.
Mrs. Davis said that she had never read this book, and that the
characters in her story were not fictitious; they lived and moved about in the
streets of Chicago.
The charge may have been
made because of the desire on the part of The Plaindealer to discredit The
Spectator, and picked on one of the latter’s outstanding correspondents in
order to achieve its objective.
At any rate, the editor of The Spectator came
to Mrs. Davis’ defense calling it a “wanton, aggravated, and groundless charge
of literary theft.”
It was admitted by the
authoress that a few sentences and alterations were made by a “literary
gentleman”, and it was these portions of personal descriptions, which resembled
Eugene Sue’s book. People with whom she boarded, who were often with her when
she wrote the story, sent letters denying the charge.
Maggie then went to Chicago
and reported that he had found the book from which M. B. D. had taken The Heirs
of Glen Castle. She then wrote:
It is embellished and may
be very much like Bulwer’s novel, for if there is one author whose style I have
admired, studied, and tried to imitate, more than another, it is Bulwer’s.
I have often been told that I copied Bulwer’s
style, but depend upon it, however much they resemble, and the foundation of
that story is true.
Not content with the
plagiarism charge, Mr. Maggie tried to cast odium upon Mrs. Davis and ruin her
reputation. Everyone thought the accused
should have been spared the following allusion:
The whole plot of the story
is laid in a house of ill fame, and the scenes and incidents are narrated in a style,
which shows a disgusting familiarity with the wretched inmates of these vile
dens.
For a woman who had spent
so much time and labor in a cause, which meant a great deal to her, this was
almost too much. Mrs. Davis then wrote
an article in her own defense. She said
that in 1853, when she came to Chicago, no one thought of going out among the
squalid poverty that abounded there. She
continued:
In 1856, having saved
several families from want and degradation, released many poor, and rescued
some young creatures from prostitution, I visited Galesburg, Monmouth, and
Oquawka, presented the subject to large audiences of ladies, and received
golden aid from Oquawka.
Then Maggie told that he
found her boarding in “a low groggery and house of ill fame kept by a Negro”
Three of Chicago’s most
distinguished clergymen wrote in defense of Mrs. Davis’ irreproachable
Christian character.
Maggie
continued spying in an attempt to ruin M. B. D’s reputation by insinuating that
she had visited houses of ill repute to find out the names of visitors to these
houses and communicate them to Town Talk, a newspaper.
This was refuted by “Qquila, a Chicago
correspondent, who heaped scathing remarks upon Magie”.
Finally, Mrs. Davis decided
that she would say no more about the matter and regard it as a closed issue.
Her final defense was:
My life here is devoted to
the seeking and saving of the lost and abandoned.
In no spirit of vain glory have I paraded
this mission before the public; I have alluded to it only when the elucidation
of some touching annals of the poor-some event of real life whose narration
might be beneficial-has rendered it necessary, or when it has been extorted
from me in the desire to defend my reputation from malignity and inexcusable
misrepresentation.
If the confidence of her
friends is adequate proof that Mrs. Davis was in no sense guilty, then the
charge was almost ridiculous. The number
of people who came to her defense was astounding. This is proof of her high standing as a
journalist and reformer.
The other purpose in life
to which Mrs. Davis lived besides that of being a writer, was to be a
reformer. She worked for Temperance,
Prison, and Religious Reform, and for Charity.
The decade following 1840
witnessed the founding of more Temperance organizations that any other similar
period in the history of the United States.
The Washingtonian movement began in Baltimore in 1840, and the Martha
Washington movement was organized in 1841.
The first local society of the Sons of Temperance was organized in
1842.
Mary Brown Davis Believed
that women should play an important part in the Temperance movement. She was pleased that so many had become
Martha Washington’s and Daughters of Temperance in the vicinity of
Galesburg. In 1850, she instituted
Harmony Union Number 25 in Abingdon, and the Oquawka Union of Daughters of
Temperance Number 25.
Although she was pleased
with the progress of reform in the vicinity of Galesburg, it was much different
in Chicago. The following statements of
the existent situation in Chicago were made in 1853.
There is only on e
Temperance paper – a small monthly – while intemperance stalks abroad
unrebuked. There is a Division of Sons
and Temple of Honor, but they have run the thing in the ground. The youth who can come here unprotected
remain a year or so and come out unscathed is a fortunate youth.
The reason given by Mrs.
Davis for such an oversupply of youths in the city was that they were induced
to come by businessmen who wanted to make their choice from many and keep wages
low. This left many to form the drinking
habit.
Besides informing people by
her letters of the intemperance in Chicago an urging them to reform, Mrs. Davis
helped to canvas Chicago to get subscribers for a temperance paper. The lack of cooperation that she received
from the city’s highest official was for.
In the cholera epidemic of
1854, Mrs. Davis ministered bedside the sick and dying beds when many of the
doctors had left the city. She was
anxious to have the public realize just how much cholera there really was and
condemned the city authorities for trying to conceal the truth.
On one occasion, Mrs. Davis
froze her feet because she insisted upon going to see a poor woman whom she
found half starved. Holding a frozen child.
This is certainly illustrative of her zeal for her work among the poor.
Another important phase of
her reform work was that done in religion.
In her letters, Mrs. Davis often mentioned the progress of the churches
and their conventions. She was
especially interested in the Baptist Church, of which she was a member. Even here, her views were liberal.
The greatest reform work
done by this most unselfish of women, was in the field of prison reform, where
she combined temperance, charity, and religious reform as well. Her first mention of work along this line
came upon the occasion of the building of a new chapel at the Bridewell prison.
At this time she confessed that for two years she had been working as a
solitary laborer and teacher amid “that unfortunate den of fellow beings” and
that her dream was to get a reform school. For delinquent girls. On another occasion she mentioned that she
was the first to visit the jail.
Thinking that the efforts
for a place of refuge for delinquent girls would be successful, Mrs. Davis
wrote the following from which it is safe to assume that it was largely due to
her that such a move came to be made:
Then what I in great
weakness, have been laboring for these five long years will be consummated, and
I can retire devoting myself to tone object of prison reform.
The Opportunity for her to devote
herself to prison reform was not long in coming. In December 1858, Mrs. Davis became Police
Matron at the Diesel prison; it is safe to say that she was one of the first Police
Matrons in the state of Illinois.
Her own description of “her
charge” at the Diesel is a graphic one:
Our charge in the City
Prison is chiefly aided from the ranks of those who have to car for them, and
by a long continuance in evil doing have become reckless of themselves. It is a hard and uphill work to reform such,
yet we believe can be done, and by the grace of God we hope to be
successful. Already eight women have got
good homes and are doing well.
Sources:
Sources:
Notable Women of Galesburg, Illinois
http://www.ci.galesburg.il.us/assets/1/22/Notable_Women_of_Galesburg_IL_031412.pdf
