Leonard Stephens Diary, 1857 Trip, Part 2

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June 20, 1857. We this morning at about 6 o'clock parted with our friends, the family above named, & took our course homeward. In parting with Mr. Reynolds & his entire family we experienced a sensation of sorrow. They have been so kind to us that we have been assured of their warmest friendship, for they have manifested it in every way possible. Hence we have become attached to them and to part & to part with such kind friends with a feeling of it's being the last time on earth, requires and effort to do so without acting the childish part. Joe Reynolds brought us to Mr. Brockman's on the Plank Road. It is the same place where a man by the name of Wright lived fifty years ago. We had not waited more than half an hour before the stage arrived & we were fortunate enough to procure seats & were soon on our way to Fredricksburg. The stage was an old, rickety affair. The Plank Road was much out of order & the riding quite uncomfortable. We stoped for dinner at the Matoponey post office, where I had a letter mailed to Napoleon. The house is kept by a lady by the name of Parker. After dinner we resumed our journey & arrived at Fredricksburg at 3 o'clock P.M. We were much too fatigued by the jolting of the old stage to walk about to any extent during the evening & did not satisfy our couriosity in seeing the town at that time in the evening. I went, however, over the bridge & on the island which I found to be very pleasant. The bridge is about 300 yards long. On our way down today we got acquainted with a gentleman by the name of Turk, whom we found to be a fine, sociable gentleman. He resides in Augusta County, Virginia, near Staunton.

June 21, 1857. We were up early and I being told that breakfast would not be ready until 7:30, we at once decided to take a stroll over town, and in our tramp we saw a good deal of it. Fredricksburg does not look like it did when I was a boy, fifty-one years ago, for since that time many changes have taken place. The road we used to travel came into the place a good deal higher up the river than it does. It then passed down [by] the fall mill. Now it enters about one mile lower down, immediately opposite the bridge and near the center of town. After satisfying ourselves, we returned to the hotel, and after breakfasting I wrote a letter to Napoleon & put it in the post office. We then settled our bill & went to the railroad depot. Here we were detained about a half an hour, waiting for the train from Richmond. It arrived however about ten o'clock & we took our seats for Washington. We arrived at Aiquiah Creek a quarter before eleven o'clock. We found there the steamboat Potomac waiting for the train & as soon as the passengers could change from the cars to the boat, we were on our way up the Potomac River to Washington City. The river at Aiquiah Creek is very broad & much the largest course of water I have ever seen. We supposed it to be from two to four miles wide. On our way up the river we passed Mount Vernon, General Washington's residence. The old place from the river looks delapidated and ancient. The scenery along the river is very interesting & worth a trip over the mountains to see. Alexandria, Washington City & Georgetown can be seen from a distance of several miles down the river & the Capital & Washington monument are indeed beautiful to look at. Just as we were approaching the landing there came up a storm of wind rain & hail that exceeded anything of the kind I ever saw. The hail stones were the largest I have seen & there was considerable quantity. We remained on the boat until after the storm abated. Then we took a hack and went to Mrs. Fitzgerald's, who keeps a private boarding house on Pennsylvania Ave., near the Capital. We were quartered in the fourth story of the building & it is now six o'clock & raining hard. The rain continued through the evening & we had no chance to see the city.

June 22, 1857. This morning the weather is favorable for outdoor exercise & we arranged immediately after breakfast to prospect. First we went to the Capital & saw pretty everything there. The rotunda is a very interesting part of the scenery. There are drawings on the circular walls representing the Surrender of Burgoyne to Gates, the former a British General & the latter an American General, which took place during the Revolutionary War. A drawing of Benj. Franklin & two other American Commissioners, Dean & Lee, trying to induce Louis the 16th, King of France, to acknowledge American Independence. Also the Cornwallis surrender to General Washington at Yorktown. The departure of the Pilgrims to America. Also divers of other representations. We went into the Senate chamber & over the interior of the Capital generally. The Representative chamber was closed & we did not see it. We went to the Patent Office to see Mr. Buckhannon. We were introduced to him by a gentleman in Washington who was acquainted by him. We found him a very plain, courteous gentleman, who made me feel entirely free & easy in his presence. He is a large, portly man of about sixty-four or five years of age. His hair is quite white & he carries his head slightly inclined to the left side, which we understood to be occasioned by a nervous affectation. We visited the Smithsonian Institute, the Washington Monument, the Jackson Statuary, the Washington Statuary & the public grounds generally & we were indeed delighted with our observations. So much so that Brother William remarked that it was worth a months travel to see what we did. The City of Washington is certainly one of the prettiest places I have ever seen & a desirable city to live in. There are so many highly interesting localities, residences & beautiful grounds. Surely a residence here would be pleasant. We spent the entire day in walking about the place & when night came we found ourselves completely wearied & ready to retire at an early hour. We had on parting with our friend Jesse Jefferies, about 12 days before, made arrangements to meet him in Washington this day, and we, in accordance with that arrangement, are expecting to see him here when the Alexandria train comes in. Accordingly about 4 o'clock it came in & we saw Jefferies in one of the omnibuses going in the direction of the Washington depot. We tried to get him to see us, but failed. We then went to the depot & found him. He had just bought his ticket & was in the act of starting to the cars when he saw us. We tried to get him to wait until morning but he refused to do so and left us. It was impossible for us to go on the train that was then waiting. For our sacks were about a mile off at our boarding house & the train was in the act of starting.

June 23, 1857. This morning at 6 o'clock we took the train from Washington to Baltimore, having procured tickets to Parkersburgh, & now while I write we are waiting at the Relay House for the western train from Baltimore. At half past nine o'clock the train arrived & we were in a few minutes on our way. We arrived at Cumberland at 6 o'clock & stopped for supper at Oakland on top of the Alleganey Mountain. We got to Grafton at 11 o'clock, where we changed cars, taking those that were for Parkersburgh for at that point the Parkersburgh Road intersects the Wheeling Road. The former of these roads is some 100 miles nearer Cincinnati than is the latter. Hence our reason for taking this route. We arrived at Parkersburg at 4 o'clock in the morning & immediately went on board the Scioto Steamboat & arranged a passage down the river to Cincinnati. The boat is to start as soon as the 9 o'clock train of cars arrives. After engaging our passage & breakfasting I & Brother Billie took a stroll through the town to see it. We walked up the hill which overlooks the place & found but little of interest to us. For certainly by comparing it Washington City it is quite insignificant. Washington has some 60,000 inhabitants & I should suppose that Parkersburgh's population does not exceed 5,000.

June 25, 1857. Our boat left the warf at half past 10 o'clock on yesterday & after stopping at various places on either side of the river (Ohio) we reached the town of Pomeroy, on the Ohio side, about 4 p.m., where our boat landed for the purpose of taking on a load of freight, for up to this time she had but little. She took in at this point a quantity of iron & 1,100 barrels of salt, as we understood, for they seemed to be at work at it nearly all night. There our Captain and the Clerk had a difficulty which resulted in a fight. The parties were separated by the passengers & the Captain seemed to have right smartly the worst of it, as his face was a good deal scratched up & the clerk had no marks that were visible. The Captain was in a state of intoxication & was dismissed from the boat on account of his dissipation. At this place there are several coal mines being worked & also salt factories. It is said they dig out & load on the boats at one of these works 6,000 bushels of coal a day, & that to dig a hundred bushels a day is but a moderate day's work for a hand. They also manufacture at one of the works 650 barrels of salt a day. There are several of each works. This is coal & salt at Pomeroy. The price of coal here, as they told us, is 6½¢ per bushel. They pay hands 1½¢ per bushell for digging. It is now about 10 o'clock a.m. & we are just putting out down the river for Cincinnati, having been detained until this time in taking freight & repairing some damage done the boat in landing here yesterday evening & it is said we are running with but one wheel, the other being entirely disabled. We passed Guyandott about 2 o'clock & Catlettsburg at half past 5 o'clock p.m., Ashland at 6 o'clock & Portsmouth at 8 o'clock. We then retired & on the next morning we were a few miles above New Richmond, having passed in the night the towns of Maysville & Augusta. The town of New Richmond is twenty miles above Cincinnati, where we arrived at 8 o'clock a.m. On our arrival there I & brother Billy got shaved, changed our clothes & crossed the river to Covington & went to Napoleon's where we found our horse Big Tom & our buggy. After visiting until evening, on account of being fatigued, & also on account of the heat, which was oppressive, we set out for my Beech Woods home and arrived there between sunset & dark. On reaching home I found all my folks in the enjoyment of health & nothing having occured in my absence to make me feel unpleasant. For which I do earnestly desire to feel a due sense of gratitude to the supreme governor of the Universe. For it is to him we are indebted for our preservation. Oh God help me to realize & appreciate thine omnipotent power, mercy & goodness, & grant that I may more & more continually feel my utter obligations so far as self-dependence is concerned, & that I may be humble & ever ready to submit to all thy dispensing providence, is what I desire to be endued with a disposition to do.

Leonard Stephens.

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Notes:

For plank roads, see above, 6 June 1855. Return.

Of the delightfully named quartet of streams — the Mat, the Ta, the Po and the Ni — that unite a dozen miles south of Fredericksburg in Caroline County to form the Mattaponi River, only the Ni River lies near the road from Orange Court House to Fredericksburg. However, the name of Mattapony, in various spellings, was applied to many institutions in the area, including a Baptist Association. Return.

The post office was first noted in 1854, when James H. Parker was named postmaster. It later took the name of the Parker family, and met the postal needs of the neighborhood for a century. The family name survives on maps into the late twentieth century, marking a crossroads just east of the Orange-Spotsylvania line. Return.

Although Leonard omits in his narrative the name of the hotel where they stayed, he does cite it in his expense account. (See below.) The 1852 Elliot & Nye's Virginia Directory, 172, contains a fifth-page ad for The Farmer's Hotel on Main Street, C. A. Tackett, Proprietor. Main Street has since regained its original name of Caroline. Return.

The bridge was destroyed five years later as the Union and Confederate armies faced each other along the natural barrier of the Rappahannock. The tree-covered island, identified as Brown's in early maps, has somehow escaped improvement. Return.

Mr Turk not identified. Return.

In 1807, a year after the Stephens clan left the Virginia Piedmont for South Carolina and Kentucky, Fredericksburg, the thriving commercial center for the Rappahannock, suffered a fire which destroyed about half the structures in town. The enterprising residents quickly rebuilt. Although many colonial buildings survive to the present day, the General seems to have been struck by the growth and changes of the intervening five decades. Despite the devastation of the 1862 battle, he would recognize the Fredericksburg skyline of the 1990s, the spires of the courthouse and two churches rising above the two- and three-story structures along Caroline and Princess Ann Streets. Virginia, 217-218. Return.

The mill dam at the falls and the canals survived until after the Civil War. A hiking trail now (1998) runs along one of the canals. Return.

On William Street. Return.

The Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac Rail Road had been in operation from the state capital to the Rappahannock by 1840 with 61 miles of primitive, iron-plated wooden rails, and was extended to the Potomac a few years later. Dunbar, 1084. Return.

A tidal inlet off the Potomac just north of the great bend, Aquia Creek then served as the northern terminus of the R F & P, which was built during a brief period when railroads were thought of as connecting with steamboat routes rather than competing with them. During the Civil War the railhead was a vital link in the Union logistical system. The line was later extended to Washington. Return.

None of the ships named Potomac in the extensive Lytle-Holdcamper list matches. William M. Lytle and Forrest R. Holdcamper (rev. C. Bradford Mitchell), Merchant Steam Vessels of the United States, 1790-1868 (Staten Island, NY: Steamship Historical Society of America, 1975). Return.

Washington's heirs had allowed his home to deteriorate, and its distressing condition had led Ann Pamela Cunningham to organize the Mount Vernon Ladies Association the year before the brothers passed by. The restoration of Mount Vernon began in 1860, when the Ladies took possession of the property from the family. Randall Bond Truett, ed., Washington, D.C.: A Guide to the Nation's Capital (NY: Hastings House, rev. ed. 1968), 467-468. Return.

Until 1847, when land south of the Potomac was ceded back to Virginia, the Federal District had included Alexandria. Return.

Georgetown was then a separate community within the District, with its own municipal government. Truett, 349. Return.

The view from the Potomac in 1857 would have been much different from that to be seen in the twentieth century. Where now the gleaming, white memorials to Jefferson and Lincoln stand was tidal swamp. The Capitol lacked the commanding, hemispherical shape now familiar. Charles Bullfinch's original shallow dome had been dwarfed by the new north and south wings, which were nearing completion, but the towering cast-iron replacement was not yet installed. The Washington Monument was a stump, less than a third of its final 555-foot height. Construction had begun in 1848, but had come to a stop six years later at the 150 foot mark. Truett, 135-136, 219-223. Return.

The steamboats plying the Potomac tied up at the foot of 6th Street, West. They ran twice daily to Aquia Creek, "on the arrival of the northern cars, connecting with the cars for the south." Boyd, 423. Return.

Mrs. Margaret Fitzgerald's boarding house was listed in the City Directory at 474 Pennsylvania Avenue. Boyd, 112. Return.

The surrender scenes are by John Trumbull, as is the Signing of the Declaration of Independence, which General Stephens mistakenly cites as Franklin at the French court. Robert Weir's Embarkation of the Pilgrims was among the paintings added about 1840 after Congress reached a grudging consensus that public art would not sap the virtue of the citizens. Truett, 138. The murals and friezes above, which lead to so many strained necks among modern tourists, are later additions, completed after the new dome was finished. Return.

Probably the old Senate chamber, because the Senators did not hold their first session in the new, larger room until 1859. Laura Bergheim, The Washington Historical Atlas (Rockville, MD: Woodbine House, 1992), 333. Return.

The House of Representatives was probably in the process of moving to its new quarters which were occupied in 1857. Ibid. Return.

The Patent Office, designed by Robert Mills as a classical Doric temple with wings, was the second major Federal office building (after the original Treasury Building). It still stands on F Street between 7th and 9th, having escaped demolition by the GSA to make room for a parking lot, and is now the home of the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery. E. J. Applewhite, Washington Itself (NY: Knopf, 1981), 217-218.

[The Portrait Gallery and its twin, the Museum of American Art, are closed for renovations and will re-open in 2003.] Return.

James Buchanan (1791-1868) had been President for three months. Like his successor, Lincoln, he apparently liked to spend some time away from the White House. General Stephens' description of the former Pennsylvania lawyer accords with others. "Six feet tall and heavy set, his white hair crowning an impressive head, Buchanan was an imposing figure, neatly but not stylishly dressed, always wearing a large white collar and neckcloth. Defective vision in one eye caused him to squint and tilt his head to the side when engaged in conversation." Kenneth M. Stampp, America in 1857: A Nation on the Brink (New York: Oxford University, 1990), 47.

"Buck" had many Southern friends, including Henry Wise, who had been elected Governor of Virginia two years earlier, to Leonard's satisfaction. See above, 29 and 31 May 1855.

Return.

The famous Smithsonian Castle had been completed two years before, in 1855. Its commanding position on the Mall makes James Renwick's Romantic pastiche the most visible reminder in official Washington of the ante-bellum fondness for Gothick fantasy. Return.

The lack of progress on the monument, also designed by Robert Mills, was due in part to the hysterical actions of the Know Nothings, who more than justified the General's disdain for them. (See above, 1855.) In March of 1854, some adherents of the rabidly anti-Catholic group had broken into the construction site and stolen a block of marble from ancient Rome, which had been presented to the project by Pope Pius IX. Not content with this vandalism, in February of 1855 they had taken over the offices of the Monument Society to prevent any further desecration of the Founding Father's memorial by evil foreign influences or materials. Just three weeks before the Stephens brothers' visit, on the first of June, local Know Nothings, aided by reinforcements from Baltimore, rioted at the Northern Liberties Market. The disturbance was put down by the Marines, with six dead and scores wounded. Truett, 221; Constance McLaughlin Green, Washington: Village and Capital, 1800-1878 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1962), 1: 216. Return.

The vigorous bronze figure of Old Hickory in Lafayette Square, dedicated in 1853, was the first major equestrian statue created in America. Its popularity led the sculptor, Clark Mills, to make a copy for Jackson Square in New Orleans. Truett, 251-252. Return.

Although Clark Mills produced another equestrian figure, which now stands in Washington Circle, it was not unveiled until 1860. Truett, 385. The Stephens brothers might have seen it at the artist's studio, but I suspect that the statue in question was Horatio Greenough's controversial depiction of the first President as an august Roman magistrate, which was completed in 1840. The semi-clad, seated marble figure was derided as "Washington in a bathtub" and soon exiled to the Smithsonian. Return.

Non-Southerners who came to the city seldom shared General Stephens' favorable impressions, especially in the age before air-conditioning. Return.

The Baltimore & Ohio had opened their new depot — a tower and hall translated from some medieval Alpine village, worthy of a set for William Tell — in 1852 at New Jersey Avenue and C Street, NW, a little south of the present Union Station. Charles Ewing, Yesterday's Washington (Miami: E. A. Seemann, 1976), 78. John F. Stover, History of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press, 1987), 206. Return.

The B & O line from Washington City joined the main line 32 miles from the capital, crossing the Patapsco River on a curving, granite viaduct which survives today. Stover, 41. Before the introduction of steam, B & O horse-drawn cars stopped at this point for a change of horses. The waiting room in which General Stephens was writing was in use for another 60 years. Maryland: A Guide to the Old Line State, (NY: Oxford, 1940), 308. Return.

A colonial-era town on the north shore of the Potomac, Cumberland (elev. 641) was as far as the ill-fated Chesapeake & Ohio Canal penetrated the mountains. Earlier it had been the eastern terminus of the National Road, which was also known as the Cumberland Road. The B & O had reached Cumberland in 1842, 178 miles from Baltimore and 200 from Washington. Stover, 54. Return.

Seat of Garrett County at the western end of the Maryland panhandle, Oakland (elev. 2641) sits "in a small valley at the southern end of Hoop Pole Ridge." Maryland, 523. Return.

Later the seat of Taylor County, West Virginia, Grafton (elev. 997) did not exist until the B & O construction crews arrived in 1852. Maryland, 510. Return.

Construction on the line from Grafton to Parkersburg, officially known as the Northwest Virginia Branch Rail Road, began in December 1854 and was completed two years later. The formal opening came the following June 2 (just a year before the Stephens brothers passed through), in connection with the completion of connecting lines all the way to St. Louis. Dunbar, 1087-1095. The route measured 104 miles. Stover, 82. Return.

The Scioto, a sidewheel packet of 256 tons, was built in 1851 at Cincinnati. It burned nine years later at Shippingport, Pennsylvania. Way, 421. Return.

The population of the Federal district had grown by almost half in the 1850s, from 52 thousand to 75 thousand. James' Guide in 1856 estimated the population of Parkersburg at "nearly 4 thousand," and termed it "a place of considerable business," with (in order of importance) 1 printing office, 1 bank, 4 steam mills, 2 tanneries, and 1 carding factory. James, 98. Return.

Pomeroy, the seat of Meigs County since 1841, the Ohio town of 4,000 was 59 miles downstream from Parkersburg. Coal mines were opened in 1836, salt works in 1851, with other industrial operations nearby. James, 100. Return.

Neither crewman identified. Return.

Ashland, 8 miles below the mouth of the Big Sandy, was the site of an early ironworks (1826), which relied for fuel on hardwood charcoal. The town, named for Henry Clay's home in Lexington, has vastly outgrown its Boyd County neighbor, Catlettsburg. Kentucky: A Guide to the Bluegrass State (NY: Harcourt, Brace, 1973 [1939]) 141. Return.

Jenkins had found New Richmond a town of 600, with 2 mills, 2 churches and 10 stores. Jenkins, 332. Just upstream is the birthplace of Ulysses S Grant at tiny Point Pleasant.

For Guayandotte, Catlettsburg, Portsmouth, Maysville and Augusta, see above, 1855. Return.