An Alabama School Girl in Paris 1842-1844

An Alabama School Girl in Paris 1842-1844 the letters of Mary Fenwick Lewis and her family Nancyt/ M. Rohr_____ _ An Alabama School Girl in Paris, 1842-1844 The Letters of Mary Fenwick Lewis and Her Family Edited by Nancy M. Rohr An Alabama School Girl In Paris N a n c y M. Ro h r Copyright Q 2001 by Nancy M. Rohr All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission of the editor. ISPN: 0-9707368-0-0 Silver Threads Publishing 10012 Louis Dr. Huntsville, AL 35803 Second Edition 2006 Printed by Boaz Printing, Boaz, Alabama CONTENTS Preface...................................................................................................................1 EditingTechniques...........................................................................................5 The Families.......................................................................................................7 List of Illustrations........................................................................................10 I The Lewis Family Before the Letters................................................. 11 You Are Related to the Brave and Good II The Calhoun Family Before the Letters......................................... 20 These Sums will Furnish Ample Means Apples O f Gold in Pictures of Silver........................................26 III The Letters - 1842................................................................................. 28 IV The Letters - 1843................................................................................. 93 V The Letters - 1844................................................................................ 158 VI The Lewis Family After the Letters............................................. 205 The Family Circle We Must Have our Day of Adversity....................................211 VII The Calhoun Family After the Letters..................................... 216 Wealth is to Eat Everything out of Season If They are Prudent..................................................................... 220 Sweet Poor Little W illie - W illie Calhoun...........................224 Good and Pretty - Ada Calhoun............................................ 227 The House Flourishing with Mellowness...........................238 VIII The Lewis and Clay Families Prevail.......................................243 Learn to Receive in Calmness I Hope to Have Good Sense.................................................... 250 The Old Homeplace....................................................................253 The Smaller Family Circle..........................................................258 Write All you See and Feel........................................................ 262 Illustrations....................................................................................................265 Notes................................................................................................................ 265 Acknowledgments.......................................................................................290 Bibliography..................................................................................................305 Index................................................................................................................313 1 Preface This project began as many do, innocently. What could be very complicated about volunteering to transcribe and type some old letters for the community library? The letters were written in the early 1840’s between Mary Lewis, who went abroad to finish her education in Paris, and her family in Huntsville, Alabama. The letters were so beautifully written, so full of day-to-day events, and yet at the same time full of the wonder of new adventures. The letters were written to be shared with family, friends, and the community. Even so, 150 years later they are still meant to be shared. Mary’s sense of adventure was always near at hand in the letters. She wrote that one might fear for one’s life on a canal boat because of the size of the bedbugs and that hot cinders from the train engine ignited her best gingham dress on the railway to Philadelphia. Once in France, Mary was not sure she would ever like Paris; there were so many naked statues. She wrote from the boarding school asking her mother to please send seeds; the French children had never seen popcorn or watermel ons. Mary had accompanied the Calhoun family abroad. On one fine afternoon the French king stopped his carriage and doffed his hat to the Calhoun slave and personal maid, Margaret. But Mary also wrote abut the commonplace. She rose early in the morning, ate a modest breakfast, attended her daily classes, and joined the other students for reading aloud or acting out little skits. She fretted that her clothes were too tight and that she had bumps on her face. Mary Lewis continued to write about her new friends in the refined boarding school and her excursions about the city and into the 2 AN ALABAMA SCHOOL GIRL IN PARIS French countryside. Ma and Pa Lewis, in return, described the trivia of daily life in Huntsville. The news from home included the latest marriages and engagements of her young friends. Par son Allan died, and the entire community shared the loss. Mary’s sisters described the wedding of a black servant that was the talk of the town. Ma struggled with sis Ellen’s teenage growing pains, and while Pa was away, she struggled with authority over the slaves. Fur ther adventures also occurred in Huntsville-Mesmerism came to town, phrenology followed and of course there was the earthquake. The letters were so colorful it seemed only natural to learn more about the people involved and what became of them. There was more discovery in the research. Mary’s grandfather Betts turned out to be a land baron from Florida. Lewis men were all Revolutionary War heroes of King’s Mountain. As they matured, most of her sisters remained within the state and returned to visit their old home place. Mary married the sec ond son of Governor Clay, John Withers Clay, who became owner and publisher of the Hunstville Democrat. They and their children remained in Huntsville for many years. The Calhoun family, generally unknown in local history, had a background of enormous political power in South Carolina and enormous plantations in Louisiana and Alabama. Dur ing the reign of Princess Eugenie the Calhouns played a brilliant role in Parisian society. In America the Lewises and Clays stoically endured the War and in France the Calhouns eagerly anticipated the future. This undertaking became a discovery of fortunes found and lost, of the famous and the near famous, and of lives replete with sweetness and tragedy almost too dreadful to bear. No longer strangers, these people now had identities beyond those dreamed. Indeed this became a collection of tidbits and fragments assembled as their story. The let ters, together with research, presented the lives of these people who left their legacy for us to rediscover in delight and held their place in time. Throughout all the letters, Ma and Pa Lewis stressed education for Mary, her siblings, and for themselves. The goal of the entire trip was to “finish” her schooling even though she would return to her backwoods 3 home. Her parents insisted on vivid descriptions of everything that Mary saw and did. Ma Lewis particularly demanded more. She said memory was too treacherous to depend on. Every letter urged Mary to observe and to record for her own later study. Mary continued to learn and to write all her lifetime, even the lessons she might not have wanted to know - the babies who died, the War, Reconstruction, and poverty. Mrs. Lewis was right. In the long run it was education and writing that gave Mary, Ma, her sisters, and her daughters the means to hold the Lewis and Clay families together after the devastation of the Civil War. The letters themselves are a source of wonderment because they survived without being destroyed or lost. The fact that Mary was al lowed to go abroad was remarkable in itself. But the reader will soon see that this was an unusual family. Most southern girls were educated at home, and only a very few went away to school in northern cities. The story of the families and the letters offer no earth-shattering revelations. However, every sheet of script contains the sound of actual events as Mary and her family recorded them. They are credible stories plainly described. This was their life for two and a half years; consequently, the letters offer us much information. As a travel narrative they read beautifully. Mary’s comments about her own health and that of the Calhouns offer insights into health problems of the time. The reader will be appalled at some of the remedies in use. Obviously only the strong survived. Mary and Ma mentioned in every letter what they were currently reading and what music they were playing. Both the Lewis and Calhoun families were aware of the necessary social graces and the accepted social behavior. Mary had little experience with men, according to the standards of the time, and so her observations were about her female companions. The active roles played by the slaves in the letters were a tangible feature. Taken all together these letters and events became a rare social commentary about these unusual families. One quality remains to be noted. Within the written words the most important attribute displayed by these letters becomes apparent: the- Lewis family enjoyed a remarkably caring and loving family

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