January 29, 1851 Levi Coffin's Tale

Wednesday 29^th (January)

Still despairing of ever receiving a letter from Piqua. I was invited out this evening but did not go as my company did not come for me. I went to school thus expecting to hear an address from Prof. Holdrich but was disappointed. We had no lecture therefore. I have my composition almost done and how happy I am and expect to copy it tomorrow. I have a hard lesson to study in Latin this evening and think I had better hurry and commence. Brother is here tonight and I expect we shall have another fuss when father comes home.

Prof. Holdrich is not identified. He is not found in the 1850 Census, the 1850-51 City Directory, or the list of teachers in The Alumna (The Alumna 1859 97-98). Could Serena mean Prof. Hazert who will present a lecture about the microscope at the Melodeon next week?

The Cincinnati Enquirer February 6, 1851

Serena’s father could enjoy a hearty laugh – at the expense of others. Levi Coffin, the prominent abolitionist, tells a story about Albert and his brother Henry in The Reminiscences of Levi Coffin. In connection with the escape of a family of slaves, “Mr. Coffin tells an amusing circumstance. As he needed money to defray expenses he called at the pork house of Henry Lewis, one of the stockholders of the ‘Underground Railway,’ Here he found Mr. Lewis, his brother Albert and Marcellus B. Hagans, at a later time Judge Hagans, but then Henry Lewis' bookkeeper. (He was married to their niece, Almira Lewis.) There were also three slaveholders sitting in the office. Mr. Coffin asked for some money to help some poor people, knowing that Lewis would understand him. Thereupon not only did Lewis, his brother and Hagans contribute but the three Kentuckians also added their mite, unconscious of the fact that they were assisting slaves to escape from their masters.

"Some time later when some slaveholders from the same neighborhood sitting in Lewis' office were cursing the abolitionists, Lewis informed them of the fact that some of their own neighbors had helped the abolitionists with their money."

A great-grandson of Albert will have a similar sense of humor one hundred years later. After noticing numerous violations of the fire code in businesses near his, he and a friend will amuse themselves during their lunch hour by impersonating fire inspectors and giving stern warnings to the business owners and managers.

 

Serena’s father, Albert Henry Lewis.

January 28, 1851 A Rainy Morning

Tuesday 28^th (January)

This morning I went to school, it was raining quite hard so I was obliged to ride. Unexpectedly I had to recite and therefore was not very well prepared with my lessons. I talked most of the day and would have been much frightened if the roll had have been called. In the afternoon I knit some on a sock belonging to a friend talked and laughed some and then Mr. Wilber dismissed us. I am now at home trying to study my lessons and write some composition for Friday. We had quite a pleasant walk home this evening though it was quite muddy. I am anxiously waiting for a letter from my dear old Piqua and hope soon to receive one but do now know but I shall be disappointed however I shall, “hope on hope ever” as is the old saying. Now I am going to study my lessons and try to write some composition.

Serena rides to school in a horse-drawn carriage driven by the servant, James. She mentions the muddy walk home, but it really is worse than muddy. She does not elaborate on the description because she has never known any situation better than this. There is no garbage collection in Cincinnati. Residents throw their garbage into the streets where pigs freely roam, digging through the garbage, and eating what they choose. Mrs. Houston, an English traveler in 1849, described the city as “’literally speaking a city of pigs … a monster piggery’ where ‘grunts and … squeals meet you at every moment’” (Clubbe 88). Manure from horses and pigs adds to the filth in the streets. Each horse contributes about three gallons of urine and twenty pounds of manure a day (Clubbe 214).

 

The Cincinnati Enquirer January 29, 1851

Daily Cincinnati Gazette, July 3, 1851

 

January 26, 1851 Serena's Sunday

Sunday 26^th (January)

Went to bible class as usual, thence to church, thence home ate my dinner, went to class in the afternoon thence to my german (?) Sunday School, and down to Mr Boyinton’s church in the evening where I heard a most splendid sermon. Returned home about 9 oclock but met with a sad misfortune. I stept in a mud hole and was quite wet. When I got home I found T.H. there and father quite angry.

Serena goes to church today, so she must have acquired a bonnet somehow. She doesn’t mention shopping for a bonnet or making one. There are three German Methodist Churches in Cincinnati. Martin Schaad, minister of the German Presbyterian Church, lives near Serena. (1850 Census). He may have invited her to visit his church. Schaad is the minister of First German Presbyterian Church on the northeast corner of Franklin and Sycamore (Cist 79).

The Rev. Charles B. Boynton is the minister at the Second Orthodox Congregationalist church on the east side of Vine, between Eighth and Ninth Streets (Cist 79).

The afternoon Class is a characteristic of Serena’s church. The Doctrines and Disciplines of the Methodist Episcopal Church states that each society (congregation) should be divided into smaller companies, called Classes, of about twelve persons. One member of each Class is to be the leader. It is the duty of the leader to meet with each member at least once a week:

1.       ”To inquire how their souls prosper.

2.       To advise, reprove, comfort, or exhort, as occasion may require.

3.       To receive what they are willing to give toward the relief of the preachers, church and poor.”

In addition, the leader must meet with the ministers and stewards once a week:

1.       “To inform the minister of any that are sick, or of any that walk disorderly, and will not be reproved.

2.       To pay the stewards what they have received of their several classes in the week preceding” (Doctrines 26-27).

Streets are either dirt or paved with limestone blocks. The limestone breaks, creating puddles after heavy rains. (Cist 338) The streets can also be very dusty. Street sprinklers are used to combat the dust. These are large horse-drawn barrels on wheels (Green, and Bennett 41). “Bowlder pavement” is being introduced in 1851. The hope is that this type of pavement will eliminate “those clouds of dust, which in dry summer weather, constitutes our greatest street nuisance” (Cist 338).

T.H. is Thomas Hunt, sister Libby’s fiancé. We don’t know why Father is angry. Perhaps he is worried about the young man’s intentions.

 

Daily Cincinnati Gazette, July 08,1851

 

Daily Cincinnati Gazette August 20, 1851

 

January 25, 1851 Making Calls

Making calls

Saturday 25^th (January)

I arose rather late and did my accustomed work, commenced a pair of baby socks knit on them until dinner time. After dinner I continued knitting until I was obliged to stop for two reasons, 1^st to see Libby get in a buggy to take a ride with Mr. Hunt, 2^nd to prepare to make calls with Eve Marshall. I made several but did not find all on whom I called at home. Returned quite late and again resumed my knitting and before I went to bed finished the socks and washed them.

Contacting a friend is complicated. There are no telephones, cell phones, or email services. People have four options: send a telegraph (between major cities), mail a letter (considered impersonal within the city), have a servant carry a note to the friend’s home, or go in person. If they make a call (go in person), their friend may be away making calls on others. This will be worked out by the time the Cincinnati Society Blue Book is published in 1879. The listing for Serena’s sister Libby will show that she and her daughter Libbie R. are “at home” on Wednesdays. They will stay home that day to entertain any friends that come to call.

Ladies and gentlemen carry small cards, printed with their names, to leave with the servant who opens the friend’s door. According to the Cincinnati Blue Book, they might bend the corner of their card to indicate that their call is a visit (upper right corner), for congratulations (upper left corner), for condolence (lower left corner), or to say adieu (lower right corner). If the friend is at home, the servant carries in the card to announce the visitor. If not, the cards remain in a tray on the entrance hall table. The cards might also be delivered without calling, indicating an inability to call in person. Etiquette will become elaborate. For example: “The custom is for a lady, about to be married, to enclose her card in an unsealed envelope, which the servant should deliver; the lady not leaving the carriage” (Thomson 799).

The 1850 Federal Census shows Eveline Marshall, age nineteen, living in the 9^th Ward of Cincinnati with Heatley Marshall, age fifty-four, Laura Marshall, age sixteen and Charles Marshall, age thirteen. The young people own real estate valued at $4000 each for the girls and $10,000 for Charles. They may have inherited it from their mother or their grandparents. Eve Marshall is not listed as a graduate of Wesleyan Female College in the Commencement Exercise Programs from 1845 through 1859 (The Alumna 1859:46-75).

January 21, 1851 "The Harmony of Geology and Religion"

 “The Harmony of Geology and Religion”

 

Tuesday 21^st (January)

Still waiting anxiously for a letter from Piqua and also for my approaching examination, which will be Thursday and Friday. Today I listened to an excellent lecture on the “Harmony of Geology and Religion” As the Wisdom, Power and Goodness, is written on the leaf of the Bible so are they written on the leaf of Nature. It was delivered by Prof. Lippett.

 

Edward S. Lippett, A. B., is the Professor of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, and Teacher of Linear and Perspective Drawing and Painting at Wesleyan Female College. (Cist 68) He is also Lecturer on Chemistry at Herron’s Seminary (Cist 69). The 1850 U. S. census shows E. Lippett, age twenty-five, a Professor in College, living with the George Reeves family in 7^th Ward of Cincinnati.

These are interesting days for the study of geology. “Scientific theory and religious doctrine began to diverge as early as 1830” (Heininger 126). Scientists studying geology gathered evidence that the earth was older than taught in the Bible. Sir Charles Lyell gathered information from the geologists showing that life had existed for thousands of years, apparently gradually developing in complexity and sophistication. Discoveries by paleontologists introduce the radical concept of extinction of species. There are spirited arguments between scientists and theologians, but the demonstration that life is becoming more perfect fits into popular beliefs. It has started to become accepted that the “Scriptures were metaphorical in their treatment of time…” and there is evidence of catastrophes such as those recorded in the Bible (Heininger 126). The landmark work of Charles Darwin will not appear until 1859.

January 20, 1851 The Greek Slave at the Western Art Union

The distribution at the Art Union

 

Monday 20^th (January)

Went to school as usual. In the evening attended the distribution at the Art Union, but did not draw the Greek Slave came home and Mr. Hunt staid about one hour and then we retired. Before we started for that place we had a little fuss with regard to Mr. Hunt but I hope it will all pass over. 

The Greek Slave is a statue that has created a furor across America during its 1847 to 1851 tour. More than one hundred thousand Americans have turned out to view the statue depicting a young Greek woman, nude, and chained by Turkish captors. Her clothing, a cross, and a locket are draped beside her (Winterer 165). The statue is neo-classical in style, posed like the Venus of Knidos, ca. 350-300 B.C., in the Vatican Museum (Roberson and Gerdts 5). The sculptor, Hiram Powers, originally a resident of Cincinnati, later moved to Italy. He is “the first international artistic figure of significance from the United States” (Roberson and Gerdts 1).

Serena doesn’t tell us how she feels about the statue. Current standards of modesty require ladies to be swathed from head to toe in yards of fabric. Is Serena embarrassed by the statue of the beautiful young woman standing before her, chained and completely nude? Or is she able to consider it objectively as a work of art? Powers realized that the conservative Americans might be offended by the statue’s nudity. He was careful to present it as antiseptically as possible. The statue is variously described as clothed in a “layer of honor,” “clothed all over with sentiment,” and “Naked, yet clothed with chastity…” (Katz 156). A newspaper article in 1845 states that “the figure seems to breathe an atmosphere of purity, and to be surrounded by a halo of virgin innocence; and you gaze on the charms that the artist’s hand has revealed with feelings of reverence and admiration, unmixed with a thought of earthly passion” (Cist Miscellany 239).

Serena also doesn’t mention the abolition discussions that the statue provoked. The statue creates sympathy for the Greeks in their war for freedom from the Ottoman Turks. It may be easy for white Americans to relate to the ordeals of the Caucasian Greeks while ignoring the plight of the African slaves on American soil. But it also may be seen as an anti-slavery statement, skillfully inverting the symbolism, because showing a black female slave would have been interpreted as a blatant abolitionist sentiment. The sculpture was “co-opted by abolitionists” while remaining popular in slave-holding states (Nelson, Charmaine 173).  The British magazine Punch publishes “The Virginian Slave”, a cartoon showing a statue of an African slave chained to post that is draped in an American flag. The motto “E Pluribus Unum” is written across the base of the statue. 

Powers’ statue is so popular that he has produced six full-size replicas, as well as numerous smaller statues, busts, and molds for “souvenirs” (Roberson and Gerdts 11). The winner of tonight’s lottery will sell this copy of The Greek Slave to William Wilson Corcoran. In future years she will grace the grand staircase at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. (Roberson and Gerdts 15). 

Father is not happy that Mr. Hunt visits so frequently. He may be worried by the growing affection of his daughter Libby for the young man.

 

January 17, 1851

Jan 17^th: Friday 17^th

Arose as usual and went to school. In the afternoon I had a journal, but a foolish one, however I read it and much to my sorrow received a subject for the week following, “Geological Researchers.” I shall try to write on it as well as I can.

Serena may choose to write about the geologists of ancient history, such as Theophrastus, a pupil of Aristotle, who described all then-known rocks and minerals in “Concerning Stones.” Pliny the Elder wrote a thirty-seven volume manuscript including all Roman knowledge about rocks, minerals, and fossils. It is more likely that her focus will be on the modern day researchers who are making news in the early nineteenth century. These include Abraham Gottlob Werner from Germany, who believed that the earth had once been completely covered with water and that all rocks and minerals were deposited as sediment. He and his followers believed that there would not be any more changes in the surface of the earth. In contrast, James Hutton, from Scotland, believed that heat was involved in the formation of some rocks. He proposed the principle of uniformitarianism, the concept that the earth would continue to change. John Playfair expanded on Hutton’s ideas in Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory of the Earth. Nicolas Demarest, Leopold von Buch and Alexander Von Humboldt studied various volcanic areas and reinforced Hutton’s theories. These theories were further supported by Sir Charles Lyell’s textbook Principles of Geology, published in 1830. Louis Agassiz studied European glaciers in the 1830s and 1840s and suggested that a sheet of ice had once covered Europe and changed its surface. Robert Mallet started studying earthquakes in 1846 by exploding gunpowder underground (World Book G: 97-99). This is an exciting time of expanding knowledge and understanding.

January 14, 1851

Serena Misbehaves

Jan 14^th. Tuesday 14^th

Having sit up so late the evening previous, I was not able to attend school this morning. However I went this afternoon recited tolerably well and returned home. In the evening in order to pass away time I broke a lamp and after listening to a scolding stuck it the vase on the mantle piece for show. I am very much fatigued from my last night dissipation and should like to retire early. Expect father will be at home this evening and how glad we will all be. I have studied most of my lessons and now about to commence my journal for this week’s composition after which I think I shall retire.

In these days before electricity, light is provided by whale or lard oil lamps, or by candles. Lard oil is a plentiful by-product of the pork industry. Serena’s family may be fortunate enough to be one of the 1,400 private customers in Cincinnati to also have gas lamps (Green, and Bennett 37). Sometimes Serena seems to be thoughtless, awkward or clumsy. Breaking a lamp is no small infraction, but Serena does not seem to take the event seriously.

In future years, the word “dissipation” will bring to mind a life of alcoholism, sex, and drug addiction. It seems to have a more innocent meaning in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In Anne of Green Gables, Anne describes her well-chaperoned trip to the city, saying “The ice cream was delicious, Marilla, and it was so lovely and dissipated to be sitting there and eating it at eleven o’clock at night.”

 

 

January 12, 1851

The Mystery of the Missing Bonnet

 

Jan 12^th: Sunday 12^th

This day arrived in all its glory but as I looked at the persons going to church I felt sad to think that I had to remain at home. I had no bonnet and therefore was not able to go out. Mary Masson came down to see me in the morning and staid until almost dinner time. How different did I feel to what I did in Piqua. If I live to see my 30. 40. or 50^th year I can then look to the Sabbath I spent in Piqua with much pleasure. Then I can speak of the sermons I heard there with delight. This day passed pleasantly for that dear one spent the day staid to tea and left an early hour for home.

 

She had no bonnet? What can she mean? She had gone to church three times the previous Sunday. Did she leave her bonnet in Piqua? Is it “I had no bonnet” as in “I didn’t have a thing to wear”? Is a bonnet required now that she is eighteen years old, but not before, when she was seventeen? It is probably the latter. In the 1850s, bonnets are “the only proper headgear for ladies, at least in town” (Severa 102). Lucy Ware Webb described bonnet styles to her uncle, John C. Cook, in a letter in 1848. “I will [now] tell [you] the fashions. The bonnets are trimmed with strips of velvet over all the bonnet, or with deep blue ribbon, and pink or cherry bows in sides” (Marchman 48).

The 1850 U.S. census shows Mary E. Masson, age sixteen, born in Ohio, as part of the Mansfield Masson household in the 11^th Ward. Mansfield Masson is a carpenter, aged forty-three, born in Pennsylvania, with real estate valued at $3000 ($78,000 in 2010 dollars). Mary Masson, age forty, born in England, is probably his wife. Children, ranging in age from twenty-two to two, are: William, Catherine, Mansfield, Mary E., Ann E., James, Francis, and Clara. M. B. Masson, a builder, has his offices on the west side of Culvert, between Sixth and Seventh. His home was on the corner of Liberty and Wilson (1850-51 Williams' Cincinnati Directory).

Mary is one of Serena’s friends from Wesleyan Female College. Her name appears in the 1848-49 and 1850-51 Catalogues, but she is not listed in the 1852-53 Catalogue. Her sister, Ann E. Masson, is in the 1850-51 and 1851-52 Catalogues (Wesleyan Female College). Mary Masson is not listed in the programs for commencement exercises for the years 1845 through 1859. Anna M. Masson will graduate on Thursday evening, June 30, 1853, at Wesley Chapel. Her composition will be “The Fields are white for the Harvest, where are the Laborers?” (The Alumna 1859:60).

January 8, 1851

Back to school

 Jan 8^th: Wednesday 8^th

This day I attended school but my feelings were different from what they were on the Wednesday previous. I felt almost as if I had no friend, but Him who reigns on high. I attended to my studies during the day and in the evening again had the pleasure of seeing my intended brother. I was very much pleased with him indeed. Nothing of much importance transpired during this day, so we will pass to the next.

  Serena attends Wesleyan Female College, located on the west side of Vine Street, between 6^th and 7^th (Cist 68). She entered the college in 1847 and will graduate in 1852 (The Alumna 1860:155).

Liberal education for women is an experiment at this time. “No university had opened its doors to her, nor proposed a side annex for the talented and ambitious girl student. There was no Vassar, nor Wellesley nor Smith College. Clara Barton and her Red Cross were unknown, and Florence Nightingale had not yet started to relieve the suffering soldiers. There were no Protestant sisterhoods or deaconesses with their training schools, their systematic visitation among the poor, the sick, the prisoner, and the outcast with helpful deeds and hopeful words…” (Shotwell 494). Higher education for women was advocated by Dr. McGuffey, president of the first Cincinnati College and author of McGuffey's Reader, and Dr. Charles Elliott, editor of the Western Christian Advocate. The college was founded in 1842 by the Methodist Church (Shotwell 494). Departments of the school included primary instruction, a collegiate department, a normal department, to train teachers, and a “department of extras” such as music and the fine arts, useful for some but not all. The school was intended to be a Methodist institution, with the goal of such sound Biblical instruction that any graduate could become a Sabbath-school teacher, but “children whose parents do not approve it need not commit our catechisms nor receive our peculiar views; but they must conform to our mode of worship and general regulations.” It was also stipulated that “the institution should furnish all the aid in its power toward the education of poor female children and girls…” (Ford and Ford 176).

The Reverend Perlee C. Wilber, M. A., was engaged as the first president of the college, and he is there when Serena attends. The 1850 U.S. census lists 41 young women, ranging in age from 12 to 19, boarding at the school. Wilber, his wife, and young children lived at this address. There were also 3 young women, aged 22 to 24. One young man, aged 23, was identified as a servant. Day students, including Serena, attended. There are 437 pupils in 1851 (Cist 68). There will be 442 students enrolled in 1855 (Foote 67). In 1858, there will be 21 teachers, with a graduating class of 29. It is described as “one of the most thoroughly–organized and best managed schools in the country” (Clark 504).

Wesleyan Female College claims the distinction of coining the term “alumnae” for the world’s first organization of women graduates. Up until that time there had been no female college graduates. A male graduate was called an alumnus. He would belong to the group of alumni of his college. The women who graduated from Wesleyan Female College created the feminine counterpart for alumnus, alumna, with the Latin plural alumnae. These terms have remained in use (Shotwell 499). They take pride in the fact that no “gentleman orator” was ever invited to “save them the time and trouble of writing” for their meetings, and that music was always furnished by the members or the Professor of Music (The Alumna 1866:12).

Wesleyan Female College will begin to decline during the Civil War due to the loss of enrollment of Southern students. Improvements in the public school system and demographic changes, as the population spreads to the suburbs, will present additional challenges. It will go out of business in October, 1892 (Shotwell 31-32).

Lucy Ware Webb was a student at Wesleyan Female College from 1847 until 1850 (Marchman 1). She graduated in the class of 1850 (Catalogue for 1852-53). She will marry Rutherford B. Hayes in 1852, and become America’s First Lady in 1877 (Shotwell 500). When Lucy graduated, she read her composition, “The Influence of Christianity on National Prosperity” (Alumna 1859:54). Serena is two classes behind Lucy, but they are probably acquainted. Lucy described the school in a letter to her uncle, John C. Cook, in 1848. “The school is very large, numbering about three hundred and forty [students]. They have lately built a new schoolhouse; it is three stories [high], having on each of the lower floors six rooms. The third [floor] is nearly all taken up in the chapel. It is [a] very nice building. And the boarding house is also three stories. It is on Vine street between sixth and seventh. The yard is large and we have permission to play, or, to use a more dignified expression, to exercise” (Marchman 42). Lucy’s portrait at age 16 gives us an idea of how Serena may dress and style her hair.

The Alumna, An Annual Published by the Alumnae of the Wesleyan Female College. Cincinnati: Methodist Book Concern. Vol. II, 1860. Print.

The Alumna, An Annual Published by the Alumnae of the Wesleyan Female College. Cincinnati: Methodist Book Concern. Vol. 4, 1866. Print.

Cist, Charles. Sketches and Statistics of Cincinnati in 1851. Cincinnati: Wm. H. Moore & Co., Publishers, 1851. Print.

 

Ford, Henry A. and Kate B. Ford. History of Cincinnati Ohio. L.A. Williams & Co., Publishers, 1881.

Marchman, Watt P. "Lucy Webb [Hayes] in Cincinnati: The First Five Years, 1848-1852." Bulletin of the Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio 13 (January 1955): 38-60.

 

Shotwell, John B. A History of the Schools of Cincinnati. Cincinnati, Ohio: The School Life Company. 1902. Print.

Wesleyan Female College, Eleventh Annual Catalogue of the Officers and Students of the Wesleyan Female College of Cincinnati, Ohio, for the Session 1852-53. Cincinnati: Morris, Clawson & Co., 1853. Print.

January 6, 1851

Home to Cincinnati

Jan 6^th: Monday.

The sun arose as usual but to shed its bright rays upon one sad heart. I was sad indeed that morning was to cause a separation of friends who might never meet again on this fair earth but thank God if faithful we shall meet above. I shed tears; I looked upon my right and then upon my left and still I saw many near and dear friends. I kissed them all but one whose lips will ne’er be pressed to mine. As I jumped into the coach I shed many a tear when I thought of the sweet place and the many near and dear friends I was about to leave. I had a pleasant journey down and arived at home at ½ 10 where found 2 gentlemen one of whom I trust may at some future day be my brother. I retired after performing my accustomed duties.

Home is Cincinnati, Ohio. Serena lives there with her father, her older sister Elizabeth (known as Libby), and her little brother Albert Henry. Libby is 19 years old and Albert Henry is 8 years old. A cousin, Elizabeth, stays with them from time to time. Their household also usually includes a maid and James, 25 year old laborer from Ireland (1850 U. S. census).

One of the two gentlemen is probably Thomas Edward Hunt, who will marry Serena’s sister in June. Thomas E. Hunt works at A.J. Mead &Co., a wholesale hardware dealer. He was 23 years old at the time of the 1850 U. S. Census. He boards at the Pearl Street House, located at the northeast corner of Pearl and Walnut (1850-51 Williams' Cincinnati Directory). The Pearl Street House is one of Cincinnati’s oldest hotels. There are plans to rebuild or enlarge it to extend it to the corner of Third Street. This hotel is near the wholesale stores, the public landing and the railroad depots (Cist 166).

The Lewis home is located on the corner of Webster and Broadway (1851-52 Williams' Cincinnati Directory). Most houses have not yet been assigned house numbers (street addresses). A city ordinance to be passed in 1853 will provide for numbers to be assigned to houses and buildings, for the occupants to be notified, and for the occupants to be required to post these numbers on the buildings. C.S. Williams, the publisher of the Cincinnati Directories, will be appointed to assign these numbers (1853 Williams’ Cincinnati Directory 437).

Cist, Charles. Sketches and Statistics of Cincinnati in 1851. Cincinnati: Wm. H. Moore & Co., Publishers, 1851. Print.

Williams, C. S. Williams’ Cincinnati Directory and Business Advertiser, for 1850-51. Cincinnati, Ohio: C. S. Williams – College Hall, 1851. Print.

Williams, C. S. Williams’ Cincinnati Directory, City Guide and Business Mirror. Cincinnati, Ohio: C. S. Williams – College Hall, 1853. Print.

 

January 2, 1851

One lovely face

Jan 2nd: Piqua

I arose, as the beautiful sun was just peeping from behind the distant cloud; and I praised Him the Giver of all things that I was thus spared. I felt sad through the day. I knew not why hardly. Evening came at which time father designed I should have a party. The guests assembled; but I was indeed sad until when I gazed around the room my eyes fell upon one lovely face beaming with good nature (God forbid that I should have a jealous heart) I felt a feeling of delight to spring up within me. This evening past very pleasantly and when the hour came we parted and again betook ourselves separate rooms there to offer to Him prayers for our preservation.

“One lovely face.” Who could that be? Alas, Serena keeps that secret. 

Serena had celebrated her 18^th birthday in December. She writes her diary in a school composition book which she has decorated with doodles of names: Serena & Nat Printiss, Caroline & Joseph Wilson and Libby & Thomas E. Hunt. Caroline is the wife of Serena’s cousin, Joseph Wilson. Thomas E. Hunt is the future husband of Serena’s sister, Libby. Frank M. White, Serena’s future husband, is not mentioned. We will meet Nat Printiss later.

Introduction

The private life of a young woman in 1851

It is New Year’s Day, 1851, in the tiny town of Piqua, Ohio. Serena Ann Theresa Lewis makes the first entry in her diary. She writes in a school composition book, filled with doodles and homework, not the usual schoolgirl diary with a heart-shaped lock. Like her diary, Serena is not typical.

Serena is an 18-year-old college girl in an era when girls were not thought to need an education. She is visiting in Piqua when she begins her diary, but her home is in Cincinnati, Ohio, with her father, her older sister, her little half-brother, and an orphaned cousin. Lacking the guidance of a mother or mature chaperone, Serena experiences a surprising degree of both freedom and responsibility.  Her father, Albert Lewis, has a pork packing house. The girls are frequently unsupervised during their father’s business trips, and they take full advantage of these opportunities for mischief.

       Religion is very important to Serena. She regularly attends church services, prays, and meditates on the blessings of life. She is sometimes shocked at the behavior of her friends, but she misbehaves in other ways herself.

Serena has experienced much grief in her brief life. She has lived through a cholera epidemic. Tuberculosis and other diseases are a constant threat. She has lost cousins, aunts and uncles, three grandparents, her mother, and her stepmother to various illnesses. Nevertheless, she usually is focused on the present, describing activities, worries, and minor teen tragedies.

Education is very important to Serena’s family. Her uncle, Samuel Lewis, was the first Superintendent of Schools for the State of Ohio in the 1830s. Serena attends Wesleyan Female College, from which she will graduate as valedictorian in 1852. This school was one of the first American institutions of higher learning for women.

Serena mentions some of the events occurring in Cincinnati during 1851. There are many Lyceum cultural programs. The Art Union purchases The Greek Slave, a statue by Hiram Powers, and offers it as a raffle prize to members. A Panorama, A Whaling Voyage Round the World, is presented. P.T. Barnum brings the famous soprano Jenny Lind to Cincinnati on her first concert tour. John Gough, a leading temperance advocate, visits Serena’s school to lecture about the dangers of the use of hard liquor.

Serena keeps her diary for her own purposes, but in doing so she gives us a glimpse into domestic and social life in those days before electricity, telephones, and automobiles. She writes about her friends and her large extended family, but she conceals the identity of the mysterious person who is her main attraction in Piqua. She frequently speaks of female cousins without giving their last names and of male friends without giving their first names. She presents challenges, but she does speak freely about her thoughts and feelings.

This blog includes Serena’s original diary entries, transcribed to make them more legible, along with other historical material to put Serena’s writings into perspective. It explains Serena’s mid-19^th century life to 21^st century readers, gives background to the events, and identifies the people that she mentions. Let’s travel back to Serena’s world in 1851 Cincinnati.

January 1, 1851

Thankful for life, mindful of death

 

Wednesday, January 1st, 1851: Piqua 

The night of the old year closed and brightly broke the morning of the new year, and I thought who should live to see this new year close. And shall it be this the question asked by the youth, again we hear it from the middle aged, and finally the hoary headed whose faltering step tells us that not far distant is the yawning tomb. The first day of this lovely New Year past pleasantly until evening, and then as the shades of that blest time of repose began to spread themselves over this beautiful Earth we thought who would live to see the dawn of the second day of this New Year, but was reconciled with that thought which ought to reign in every one’s breast; “He doeth all things well.” We retired. 

Serena has good reasons for thinking about the transience of life. Her mother, also named Serena, had died in 1839, when our writer was only six years old.

 

Serena’s father married again, and a son, Albert Henry Lewis, was born. Serena’s stepmother, Hannah Hunt Lewis, died in 1843, soon after the birth of Albert Henry. 

Cincinnati suffered a devastating Asiatic cholera epidemic in 1849. Over 7 percent of the population died, 8,500 people out of 116,000 (Howe 29). Charles Cist reports that Cincinnati has a ratio of deaths to population of 1 to 40, better than most European cities and many American port cities (Cist 148).

The death of Serena’s mother

 

The scene was described in the Western Christian Advocate: 

"Serena Ann Lewis, consort of Albert G. Lewis of this city, died on the 27th of December, 1839, the 27th year of her age. Her disease was consumption. She suffered long and patiently. The last few weeks of her life she was not heard to complain or murmur. The last two days she lived, she was in constant meditation and prayer. A few hours before she expired, she called her husband and family to her bed-side, and gave them her dying counsel; she begged of them not to weep for her, and said she was perfectly happy and ready to go and that all she desired, was for them to meet her in heaven. After conversing for some time, she became exhausted, and fell asleep, as we all thought, in death, but revived. She was anxious to join her infant babe in heaven. I have often heard persons talk of philosophy, but I never saw it more beautifully exhibited than in her case.” 

Serena’s mother suffered from tuberculosis, known in that time as consumption. The infant mentioned was her first baby, Luther Rose Lewis, who had died of whooping cough at the age of 5 months (Records of Spring Grove Cemetery). Two daughters survived her: Elizabeth Rose Lewis and Serena Anne Therisa Lewis (Spooner 178).

 

Spooner, Thomas. Memorial of William Spooner, 1637, And of his Descendants to the Third Generation; of His Great-Grandson, Elnathan Spooner, and of his Descendants, to 1871. Cincinnati, Ohio: Robert Clarke & Co., 1871. Print.