Women, Work, and Worship in Lincoln's Country: The Dumville Family Letters
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Women, Work, and Worship in Lincoln's Country: The Dumville Family Letters
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| ISBN-13: | 9780252098130 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | University of Illinois Press |
| Publication date: | 02/15/2016 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 232 |
| File size: | 2 MB |
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Women, Work, and Worship in Lincoln's Country
The Dumville Family Letters
By Anne M. Heinz, John P. Heinz
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS PRESS
Copyright © 2016 Board of Trustees of the University of IllinoisAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-252-09813-0
CHAPTER 1
The Dumvilles and Their Times
When Ann Dumville stood to speak, the meeting paused. The clergy were debating the future of the women's college, which was insolvent. Lenders were demanding payment, and the Catholic church had offered to buy the property. The meeting was the "conference," the annual gathering of Methodist preachers in the region, and Mrs. Dumville's participation was unprecedented. Women were not members of the conference, were not ministers, did not hold leadership positions in Methodist congregations, and seldom attended the conference, even as observers.
It was a large assembly. One hundred and twenty clergy were present at the "West Charge" church in Jacksonville, Illinois, the newer and more prosperous of the two Methodist churches in town. Remarkably, the clergyman presiding at the meeting permitted Mrs. Dumville to speak. She spoke with a Yorkshire accent: "Your daughters must be educated; my daughters must have an education. We must keep the school. It must not be sold. It must not be sold. We must give; all must give! I have a hundred dollars in Mr. Chestnut's bank in Springfield and I will give it." A preacher who was present said that her remarks were "as startling as an apparition from the other world." The elders of the Methodist church were moved, other pledges followed, and the college was saved. A donation of such size from the earnings of a housekeeper was a very considerable sacrifice in 1860.
Ann Dumville was a widow who lived in a nearby town. She was a devout Methodist, and she had two daughters who attended the college when they could afford it. She had arrived in the New York Harbor in 1840 with her husband and children. According to the ship's manifest, there were six Dumvilles on board — Ann, age forty-four; Thomas, forty-six; William, nineteen; Elizabeth, twelve; Jemima, ten; and Hephzibah Beulah, eight (see figure 3). Thomas and Ann were husband and wife, the three girls were their daughters, and William may have been a son, a nephew, or a cousin or some such. After their arrival in the United States, we find no further record of him. The father, mother, and three daughters, however, made their way to St. Louis and then, a few months later, to central Illinois, where they settled on a farm at a place called Sulphur Springs (figure 4). Thomas purchased land that was intended for the support of a colony or cooperative society, probably one that was religiously based. The name of the place, with its connotations of the netherworld, might have been taken as a cautionary omen, but the settlers nonetheless bought the land.
The venture ended badly. As Hephzibah said in a letter to England seventeen years later:
September, 1859
The death of father, which took place two years after we came to America, left us friendless indeed so far as human aid was concerned. But he consoled himself during his sickness and by thinking that the God in whom he trusted would take care of the wife and children that he would leave behind.
They had been in Sulphur Springs only a short time when Thomas died, leaving Ann with three young daughters. The colony then failed, they lost the land, and the fatherless family moved to Carlinville, the county seat, where Ann found work. But, because her earnings were not sufficient to pay for the food and housing of her three daughters, it became necessary for the girls to leave her household. In 1846, when Elizabeth was eighteen years old, she married a farmer, John Williams, and went to live with him in a nearby county. Jemima and Hephzibah, then in their mid-teens, moved to Jacksonville, about fifty miles from Carlinville, and lived with the family of William Stribling, a farmer and Methodist minister. The Stribling farm, Sunny Dell, was two miles east of town (figure 5).
In order to save enough money to pay for their schooling, Jemima and Hephzibah attended the women's college only in alternate years — they took courses in 1851–52, 1853–54, and 1855–56. Between those sessions, Jemima taught primary-school students, and Hephzibah worked at the Stribling farm. Because of their work schedules, they sometimes missed part of the school term. The two Dumville daughters resided at the farm as some indefinite combination of boarders and servants, but this was not unusual. Don Doyle's history of social stratification and economic development in Jacksonville found that, by 1860, about half of the households had at least one boarder or unrelated lodger. There was a housing shortage in the town after the arrival of the large wave of Irish and German immigrants in the late 1840s and the 1850s, and the average house then held six or seven persons, many unrelated. About one in every six Jacksonville families had servants. In Carlinville, we found an average of slightly more than five persons per household in the 1860 Census. In a sample including 103 households, one-third had one or more unrelated residents. Twenty-two of those 103 households included unrelated females.
Macoupin County, where Carlinville is located (see figure 4), was organized in 1829, but settlement of the county was opposed by a Methodist preacher because he contended that "God had set apart this region as a reservation for the geese and ducks." Some called the place the Frog Pond Kingdom. Jacksonville was a more substantial place than Carlinville — in 1850, the population of Jacksonville was 2,745, while that of Carlinville was only 438; by 1870, Jacksonville had grown to 9,203 and Carlinville had reached 5,808. In the late 1840s and early 1850s Jemima moved back and forth between the two towns. In the Census of 1850 she is listed as living in Carlinville at the residence of the Tillers, who were farmers (appropriately enough). Hephzibah, however, spent most of her youth separated from her mother and sisters — she remained with the Striblings for sixteen years.
The daughters sent letters to Ann and, later, to each other. Ann's letters were dictated, and the handwriting varies. The letters from Elizabeth's household were written by her husband, John Williams. Elizabeth was barely literate, if at all. She wrote little and only with great difficulty. So far as we can tell, she did not read. The majority of the letters that survive were written by Hephzibah Beulah. She liked to experiment with her names — she signed her letters, variously, as Heppy, Heppe, Eppie, Hepsa, Heppa, Beulah, and (inexplicably) Belle. Her early letters, which began when she was nineteen years old, make it clear that she had not then received much schooling.
The photograph of Ann Dumville seen here (figure 6) has a revenue stamp on the back indicating that it was taken in 1865, when she was sixty-nine. She was just a bit more than five feet tall and had "an easy dignity that suggested intelligence and strength." She dressed conservatively, in the attire of an elderly widow — black dress, cut full, a black silk shawl, fringed. The black was relieved by a white bonnet and neckerchief. We have no pictures of Ann's husband or children. Apparently, however, Jemima and Hephzibah shared a family resemblance. A letter written by Hephzibah in November of 1856 notes a conversation in which a new acquaintance said, "I know that is Miss Dumville because she looks so much like Miss Jemima."
The Dumville women have distinct voices. The letters record their differing views on religion, schooling, politics, technological innovation, relationships with employers, and the struggle to live. Hephzibah was a keen observer, possessed of a somewhat wicked wit, and she had a sharp eye for folly. Jemima, in contrast, was more disciplined, more conventional, more deeply religious, more serious. Their mother was devoted to her church and was a woman of unusual moral strength, courage, and will.
Hephzibah wrestled with decisions concerning her future. What type of work should she do? Even her view of the meaning of work was subject to change — did work mean carrying out domestic tasks within a family or was it labor for which she should be paid? Would she have a career as a teacher, like Jemima, or become a farmer's wife, like Elizabeth? Or would she pursue a particular skill, for example as a seamstress or cook? Was a career necessary or desirable, or was the purpose of work merely to provide food and lodging? Was education or intellectual development valued for its own sake, or was it a means to an end? If the latter, was the goal simply to find work, or was it to fulfill God's design by developing one's potential? And what were the Dumvilles' goals or expectations concerning marriage? Did they think in terms of romance? Did they hope to find husbands and, if so, of what sort? Did they want children? How far could they see ahead? How did nineteenth century serving women assess their opportunities? To what extent did they expect to be able to control their destinies? Of course, one makes choices both by direction and by indirection, and we will see some of each. Perhaps what was most important in life was not a career, or skills, or accomplishment, or even family, but living in a state of grace as a true Christian.
Religion
Religion gave Ann Dumville's life coherence and purpose. After the death of her husband, it was difficult for her to make her way on what was still the frontier of settlement. According to a Methodist preacher, a contemporary of hers, "for days together" the Dumvilles' "only food was corn cooked and beaten." Ann's faith, however, was a source of comfort. An 1879 history of Macoupin County says, "[S]ister Dumville often walked five miles to church, which is but one manifestation of her zeal for the Lord of Hosts." The president of the women's college described Ann as a "Methodist of primitive style, characterized by singular faith, enthusiastic without a particle of fanaticism, devout without the slightest spirit of censoriousness," and a history of the conference credits her with bringing about the founding of a church in Missouri:
Visiting her daughter in Missouri during the war, she learned that there was a colored family living near. She visited them and finding that they could not read, told them that her daughter would teach them and she would furnish the books. A colored Sunday School was started, soon a preacher visited them. And the result was a church was formed.
Despite the fact that she had only her earnings as a housekeeper, she was a generous donor to the Carlinville church's foreign missions. Ann Dumville has been called "an old-time Methodist saint."
The letters reflect the centrality of religion in the Dumvilles' lives, and two experiences or transitions that held special significance for nineteenth-century Methodists are especially prominent in their comments. One of these is "conversion" and the other is "a good death," a death at which the decedent was "at peace with God." Conversion was the term used for a spiritual awakening, the experience of a definite commitment to the Word of God. In a letter written at the beginning of 1854, Jemima (then twenty-three years old) described her religious conversion at a revival meeting. Revivals, which took place over several days, were meant to strengthen and renew one's faith, and Jemima went to the meeting seeking a remedy for unhappiness. The letter tells us that she went on her own, not in a social or church group. The individual experience of salvation is a central tenet of the Methodist Church, and her decision to make the commitment was not a product of pressure from friends or peers but the result of a personal conviction that she should give herself over to God. At the meeting, she loudly declared her praise of the Lord, a conventional form of expression of faith in the evangelical tradition advocated by her mother.
Hephzibah's conversion, four years later, was rather different, and she distinguished her experience from that of her mother and sister. Her public action — standing up and going forward in front of the congregation — came after several days of struggle between her desire for commitment and her distaste for public display. Social pressure from friends who were present was important, but she felt that the crowd psychology, urging people to go forward, was not an appropriate basis for religious faith.
One needed to conduct one's life so as to be in a state of grace at the time of death and, at the end of life, to welcome the transition to Glory, "going to meet one's Maker." Preparation for a proper, peaceful death was important. It might come at any time. In Methodist publications, the faithful were given examples of good deaths, including that of John Wesley, which was depicted in a widely distributed print. Because of the influence of these models, accounts of both conversions and deaths came to follow standard forms.
Deaths occurred so often that they were met with acceptance, and religious doctrine encouraged that acceptance. Of the ninety-four letters written by members of the Dumville family, 60 percent include a reference to death or serious illness; 40 percent refer to death. The Dumvilles appear to have attended to the mortality of a broad segment of the community. Of the twenty-nine persons whose deaths are reported in the letters, eighteen are mentioned only when they die.
The Dumvilles heard both resident and circuit-riding ministers preach at church services, revivals, county fairs, school programs, and other community events, and they developed friendships with some of the preachers, but the circuit riders covered a large territory and were given new assignments every year or two. Gradually, congregations were established when they were large enough to support a full-time minister. The circuit riders provided a connection between the broader Methodist Church and the developing communities. With constant travel and no permanent home, circuit riders could undoubtedly be quite lonely, and Hephzibah appears to have felt that some of them had an interest in selecting a mate. Since she was of marriageable age, was the daughter of a widely respected member of the church, and was living in the household of a prominent local preacher, it is likely that she was regarded as a suitable candidate to become a preacher's wife. A few (but not many) of the letters reflect this.
Like any other continuing institution, the church was concerned with maintaining the organization. In addition to recruiting members, it monitored the conduct of both clergy and congregants, and it administered discipline. The Methodist "General Rules" said that it was "expected of all who continue therein, that they should continue to evidence their desire of salvation ... by avoiding evil of every kind, especially that which is most generally practiced." Members were sometimes expelled from the church, usually for misbehavior such as drunkenness or gambling. There was discussion within the congregation about each case, a sort of hearing. The Rules provided:
If the accused person be found guilty by the decision of a majority of the members before whom he is brought to trial, and the crime be such as is expressly forbidden by the word of God, sufficient to exclude a person from the kingdom of grace and glory, let the minister or preacher who has the charge of the circuit expel him ...
An 1859 letter written by Jemima reports that a neighbor who had separated from his wife "withdrew from the Conference to keep from having a trial and being turned out."
Although women were not elders or deacons of the church or members of the conference, they could be missionaries and lay preachers, and they did much of the fundraising. Missionary work was an important part of the activities of the church, and the Dumvilles' letters discuss their interest in such service. An 1853 letter refers to plans to go to Texas, apparently as missionaries, but the continuity of the letters makes it clear that they did not actually do so. Methodists had started missionary work in Texas in the 1830s. A history of Methodist missions published in 1879 commented: "Heroic work was done in Texas in those days, and it yielded goodly harvest." Friends of the Dumvilles did go to Texas, but Hephzibah reported that they did not like it. Six years later, Jemima proposed a more ambitious undertaking, missionary work in Africa. The letters refer to a lecture by John Seys, a famous and controversial Methodist missionary. He and his wife served in Liberia from 1834 until the early 1840s and then again from 1856 to 1866. Between these periods in Africa, Seys lectured widely in the United States, raising money for the missions.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Women, Work, and Worship in Lincoln's Country by Anne M. Heinz, John P. Heinz. Copyright © 2016 Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. Excerpted by permission of UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS PRESS.
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