Monday, September 4, 2017

Mary Brown Davis by Jeanne Humphreys




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.1

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.2  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.3

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.4

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.5

Upon another occasion, Mrs. Davis wrote, “I love equality, but these tow races were never intended to mingle.”6 

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.7

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.1

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.2

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.3

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.4  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. 5

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.6

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.7

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. 8

Mrs. Davis did have a secessionist cousin in Chicago, who severely castigated her for having a flag waving from her window.9

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.10

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.”1

            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”.2

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.3

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.4

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.5

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.6  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.  7

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.1

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.2 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.3

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.4

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.5

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.6 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.7

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.1

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.2

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.3  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.4

She also believed that the rich nabobs who had money enough could stay the hand of justice.5  “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.6

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?7

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.8

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.9

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. 1

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.2  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.3

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.4  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.5 

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.6  Stories based on reminiscences of life in Virginia were often written by this never tiring correspondent.  Her Reminiscences,7 Heirs of Glen Castle,8 The Tree Friends,10 and The Lilly of the Mountain of Streams,11 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.12  Her best travel writing was done in A Month in Iowa, which is a brilliant description of that state in 1852.13

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,
And all my acts control.1

Mrs. Davis wrote for the Galesburg Free Democrat while her son was editor.  These letters told about conditions in Chicago.2  The Keithsburg Observer also published her letters, which were full of Chicago news.3  She also wrote for The Monmouth Atlas and The Western Citizen.

In Chicago, M. B. D. wrote for Sloan’s Garden City,4  The Times, 5  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.6

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.7

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.8

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.1

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.2

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.3

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.4  At any rate, the editor of The Spectator came to Mrs. Davis’ defense calling it a “wanton, aggravated, and groundless charge of literary theft.”5 

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.6

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.7

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.8

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.9

Then Maggie told that he found her boarding in “a low groggery and house of ill fame kept by a Negro”10

Three of Chicago’s most distinguished clergymen wrote in defense of Mrs. Davis’ irreproachable Christian character.11  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”.1

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.2

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:




1           Muelder, Unpublished Manuscript
2           Oquawka Spectator, May 29, 1850, Volume 3, No 17
3           Oquawka Spectator, May 29, 1850, Vol 3 No 17
4           Ibid., October 19, 1853, Vol 6, No 37
5           Galesburg Free Democrat, Nov 2, 1854, Vol 1, No 44
6           Oquawka Spectator, May 17 1854, Vol 7, No 15
7           Ibid, Jun 14, 1854, Vol 7, No 19
1           Ibid Jun 14, 1854, Vol 7, No 19
2           Oquawka Spectator, Dec 19 1854, Vol 7 No 46
3           Ibid., Feb 22 1854, Vol 7, No 3
4           Galesburg Free Democrat, Feb 23 1854, Vol 1, No 8
5           Oquawka Spectator, Feb 22 1854, Vol 7, No 3
6           Oquawka Spectator, November 8, 1860, Vol 13, No 41
7           Ibid, December 6 1860, Vol 13, No 45
8           Ibid February 7, 1861
9             Ibid August 1861, Vol 14, No 13
1                 0 Oquawka Spectator, April 25, 1861, Vol 14, No 13
1           Oquawka spectator, April 25, 1861, Vol 14, No 13
2           Ibid., May 23 1861, Vol 14 No 17
3           ibid
4           Oquawka Spectator, March 20, 1862, Vol 15, No 8
5           Ibid., October 16, 1862, Vol 15, No 38
6           Galesburg Free Democrat, Sept 28 1854, Vol 1
7           Ibid
1           Ibid
3           Oquawka Spectator, July 2, 1851, Vol 4, No 21
4           Ibid June 25, 1851, Vol 4, No 20
5           Oquawak Spectator, July 9  1851, Vol 4, No 22
6           Ibid, October 26, 1853, Vol 6, No 38
7           Okuawka Spectator, January 18, 1854, Vol 6, NO 50
1           Ibid., February 22, 1854, Vol 7, No 3
2           Oquawaka Spectator, October 21, 1858, Vol 11, No 38
3           Ibid, December 21, 1853, Vol 6 No 46
4           Ibid, May 29, 1857, Vol 10, No 17
5           Ibid., November 30, 1853, Vol 6, No 43
6           Oquawka Spectator, April, 12, 1854, Vol 7, No 10
7           Ibid, November 29, 1860, Vol 13, No 44
8           Keithsburg Observer, October, 22, 1856, Vol 1, No 27
9           Oquawka Spectator July 18, 1856 Vol 9 No 24
1           Oquawka Spectator, Mar 29 1854, Vo 7 No 8
2           Ibid, December 14, 1853, Vol 6, No 45
3           Oquawka Spectator, January 4, 1856, Vol 8, No 48
4           Ibid, Jul 10, 1855, Vol 8, No 23
5           Ibid February 15 1854, Vol 7, No 2
6           Ibid, January 1, 1858, Vol 10, No 48
7           Oquawak Spectator, October 24, 1858, Vol 2, No 38
8           Ibid, January 2, 1857, Vol 9, No 48
1                 0 Ibid, August 20, 1851, Vol 4, No 28
1                 1 Ibid, September, 28, 1853, Vol 6 No 34
1                 2 Ibid October 20, 1852, Vol 5 No 37
1                 3 Ibid, September 1  1852, Vol 5, No 30
1           Oquawaka Spectator, September 10, 1851, Vol 4, No 31
2           Galesburg Free Democrat, November 2, 1854, Vol 1, No 44
3           Keithsburg Observer, November 29, 1856, Vol 1, No 32
4           Oquawka Spectator, September 19, 1854, Vol 7, No 33
5           Ibid, October 20 1852, Vol 5, No 37
6           Ibid, Jul 4, 1856, Vol 9, No 22
7           Ibid JunJun 25, 1855, Vol 8, No 21
8           Oquawaka Spectoaro, Jul 10, 1862, Vol 15, No 24
1           Oquawak Spectator, Jul 10, 1862, Vol 15, No 24
2           Oquawka Spectator, July 3, 1857 Vok 10 No 22
3           Ibid, January 15 1858, Vol 10 No 50
4           Ibid, January 19, 1858, Vol 10, No 52
5           Ibid, January 15 1858, Vol 10, No 50
6           ibid, January 29, 1858, Vol 10, No 52
7           Oquawak Spectatork February 12, 1858, Vol 11, No 2
8           Ibid
9           Ibid
1                 0 Ibid
1                 1 Oquawka Spectator, February 12 1858, Vol 11, No 2
1           ibid, March 5, 1858, Vol 11, No 5
2           ibid

Sources:

Notable Women of Galesburg, Illinois
http://www.ci.galesburg.il.us/assets/1/22/Notable_Women_of_Galesburg_IL_031412.pdf

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