He Always Loved Her....

Old Bald Head is not a typical name for a romantic hero -- at least not in books or in movies. But, in real life, General Richard S. Ewell, who possessed this unflattering nickname, wooed his lifelong love -- Lizinka Campbell Brown Ewell -- through decades of undying devotion. It wasn't until they both reached middle age that he finally won her heart.

This is the story of the woman whose hand the General waited so long to claim:

Lizinka Campbell was the daughter of a Tennessee State senator, who was also Minister to Russia under President James Monroe. She was born in St. Petersburg in 1820. She was named for the Russian Czarina, who had become her mother's close friend. She grew up to be a beautiful young lady.

Somewhere along the way, her cousin, Richard, developed a great love for her. He was born in the District of Columbia and raised in Virginia. Though he sought Lizinka's hand, she married another man -- James Percy Brown.

Brown was a lawyer who owned plantations in Tennessee, Mississippi, and Alabama. When he and Lizinka became engaged, he was an attache in the American Embassy in Paris. Through his career and family connections, he moved in the highest circles of American/French society. This was during a time when the monarchy briefly regained control of France after their famous Revolution and after Napoleon. Brown was surrounded by aristocrats and foreign diplomats. His life was much like the one that Lizinka had known when her father had been a diplomat.

The Browns had two children. Their names were George Campbell Brown and Harriet Stoddard Brown.

From the time of Lizinka's wedding to Brown, Richard remained a bachelor. He idealized Lizinka and set her up as a standard. For him, no other woman could match his romanticized picture of Lizinka.

One who knew him wrote: "He loved her when she was a young girl and being unsuccessful in his devotions, remained a soldier and bachelor on the frontier for many years, since he did not hope to find her equal in all the noble qualities of person, head, and heart, which were required by his exacting ideal..."

So, off Richard went to the adventures of war. He spent much time in the deserts of Arizona and New Mexico, where he fought Apaches, escorted traders through dangerous territory, and served in the Mexican War. He led a hard existence when compared to the refined lives of his distinguished relatives. His life was even further from the glamor and luxury to which the Browns were accustomed.

Sadly, Lizinka's husband died while her children were still very young. She moved into her father's home in Nashville. Eventually, her father died, and she inherited much of his great wealth. She proved to be as shrewd as she was beautiful, for she managed the assets she had inherited so well that her fortune increased even more.

Richard was still away in the west, serving his country. He never gave anyone the impression that he was interested in any other woman than Lizinka.

When the Civil War broke out, Richard joined the Confederate Army. He became a member of General Lee's staff. Lizinka's son, Campbell, became Richard's aide.

With her son so near to him, Richard naturally thought of Lizinka. He was anxious for her safety, as she was still living in Nashville. Nashville had fallen to the Federal Army by that point. It was officially part of a Federal jurisdiction, though Confederate sympathies continued to boil. Andrew Johnson, who was military governor for Tennessee during the war, took over Lizinka's house as his own. Battles raged all through and around Nashville, and both sides carried on a lot of spying back and forth on each other.

Lizinka was known by all to be a Confederate sympathizer. She had outfitted a Rebel company formed in Maury County by some of her cousins. The group was known as the Brown Guards. Richard had good reason to fear that Lizinka's loyalty to the Confederacy might bring trouble upon her.

For a time, Richard refused to let Lizinka's son serve in any position where he might come under fire. He commented, that if anything happened to the boy, "I could never have looked at his mother again..."

Apparently, another aide resented Richard's preferential treatment of his beloved's son. He said, "He never thinks of my mother!"

In 1862, Richard's right knee was shattered in combat. The leg had to be amputated.
Lizinka came to nurse her cousin back to health.

Finally, after years of waiting, Richard persuaded Lizinka to marry him. By this time, he was forty-six years old, and the beating his skin and body had taken during his years as a soldier made him look even older. One cynic wondered whether Lizinka agreed to marry him because she felt pity for him. Perhaps, her Confederate sympathies moved her to see him as a hero. Or, maybe, he finally did win her heart.

When Lizinka said "yes", Richard was beside himself. One of Ewell's staff described the general as "a fond, foolish old man...worse in love than any 18-year-old you ever saw."

After their marriage in 1863, Lizinka managed the General's affairs, even down to overseeing the couriers who carried his dispatches. She also persuaded her rough old soldier husband to give up swearing.

When the war ended, the couple moved to a farm that Lizinka owned in Spring Hill, Tennessee. They shared an interest in progressive farming. They played a big part in introducing Jersey cattle to Tennessee.

Richard was elected president of the Maury County Agricultural Society and president of the Board of Trustees of the Columbia Institute. Though they attended church in Columbia, TN, Lizinka also taught Sunday school in Spring Hill for a time. (The two towns are not far apart).

In January 1872, someone in the household found the General on the floor before the fireplace. He had wrapped himself in an old army blanket, and he was suffering from a severe chill. The doctors labeled the disease typhoid-pneumonia.

As she had during the war, Lizinka set out to faithfully nurse Richard. However, within a few days, she took ill herself. She died a week later.

The family was afraid to tell Richard that Lizinka was dead, for they thought that in his ill and weakened state, his grief might kill him. No one broke the news of her death to Richard until the day of her burial! Then, the couple's preacher finally told Richard what had happened.

Richard was disturbed by the news, as the family had feared and expected. He asked for her picture to be brought to him. He held it against his heart.

A little while later, he asked to see her. He gazed at her features for a long time. Within twenty-four hours, he died, as well.

Richard and Lizinka were both buried in the old City Cemetery in Nashville. An inscription in the window of the church they attended read, "R.S.E., 1818-1872, L.E.C., 1820-1872 -- In their deaths they were not divided."

Note: Many of the facts for this article came from a book by Jill Garrett which chronicles the history of Maury County, Tennessee. My mother's family have lived in that county since the very early 1800's. Mrs. Garrett's book is called, "Hither, Thither, and Yon." Mrs. Garrett was a local historian, genealogist, and writer, and she did a wonderful job of preserving so much of the county's amazing history. There are other books and web sites that tell about Lizinka Ewell and General S. R. Ewell. Diaries and papers that Mrs. Ewell's first husband wrote while he was attache to the American Embassy in Paris are on file at Georgetown University.

Enjoy!
Elizabeth

The Fascinating Mrs. Dull

When I got married in Atlanta in 1980, someone gave us a copy of Southern Cooking by Mrs. S. R. Dull (Henrietta). The first edition was written in the 1920's, and, with the exception of a few years in the 1980's, it has never been out of print!

If you're from Georgia, you're probably way ahead of me on this article. Even though the estimable Mrs. S. R. Dull died in 1964 at the age of 100, she is still highly regarded by many Atlanta cooks.

You know you're reading a Southern cookbook when it is prefaced by three introductions, one of which traces her bloodline. I won't bore you with all of the names on her family tree. But, to give you an idea of the detail: Her great-grandfather, Thomas McCall, was at one time Surveyor General of Georgia. Colonel James McCall, of the Revolutionary War was her great-great-grandfather. And, Hugh McCall, a Brevet Major in the War of 1812, was her great-great uncle. He wrote the first history of Georgia. And, that's just a few of the mentions from her father's side of the family. We won't even delve into her mother's people! Don't laugh. We Southerners are a bit obsessed with discussing who's related to whom and how.

Mrs. Dull was born in Laurens County, Georgia shortly before the end of the War between the States. Georgians, like most Southerners, faced horrendous suffering due to the war's aftermath and the harsh punitive measures of the Reconstruction. Apparently, Mrs. Dull's family was no exception. According to her son, Mrs. Dull used to laugh and say that she was born "in the forks of Hunger and Hardship Creeks." (I appreciate the joke even more now that a Laurens County reader tells me that there really are two creeks there with these names.)

Mrs. Dull's mother became ill and died when she was very young. These events forced her to step into her mother's shoes as keeper of the home. Since she was reared in an atmosphere of people who had once been used to living well, she absorbed a lot of knowledge of the domestic arts. She also helped her father, who was a railway station master at one point, by acting as a telegraph operator.

Later, her family moved to Atlanta, where she met and married Virginia native, Samuel Rice Dull. The couple had six children. However, while the children were still young, Mr. Dull's health failed, and Mrs. Dull found herself with a family to support.

This is where her excellent domestic education and experience stood her in good stead. She knew she was a good cook, and she decided that she would supplement the family income through that means.

In her words, "I began by furnishing good things to eat from my own home to Atlanta people I took special orders for parties, dances, and receptions."

She started with baking, and Atlanta matrons soon began to prize her delicate angel food cakes. Then, she began to cater parties. It was considered a grand thing in Atlanta to have your party catered by Mrs. Dull.

Her son describes what their home was like before events. "On party days our home was a hubbub of action with my mother making gallons of chicken salad and cheese straws and beaten biscuits, or if it was to be an evening party, more gallons of creamed chicken or oysters and delicately browned timbales to go with them. The family stayed up on 'party nights' until she came home, bringing the left-overs for a midnight feast. On cake baking days our house was always a popular place, both for her children and the neighborhood children, with icing bowls to lick and enough cake crumbs to go around."

Mrs. Dull became a longtime writer for the Atlanta Journal's food page. Another notable journalist who wrote for the Atlanta Journal was Margaret Mitchell. She was still working at the AJ when Mrs. Dull started writing, and the two worked together for some time.

Readers of the AJ loved Mrs. Dull's articles and recipes. Many wrote in requesting favorite recipes that they had clipped out and later lost. So, Mrs. Dull decided to collect them all into a cookbook. The cookbook not only provides recipes, but information about table service, menu planning, cooking for invalids, how to stock a kitchen, all about measurements, how to pull a meal together so that it call comes out to the right state of doneness, etc.

Some modern cooks are surprised to find that Mrs. Dull's directions are not always as precise as modern recipes are. In Mrs. Dull's day, as now, many recipes contained exact measurements and step-by-step instructions. Other recipes read more like a general description of what to do. For example, the recipe for a souffle required exactness; the recipe for slowly roasting a pig on a spit did not.

Mrs. Dull's readers expected her to use some general terms, such as "make a brown sauce" or "mix flour and water to form a paste and use it to coat a ham" or "bake in a slow oven". Women of her day knew their way around a kitchen, and they easily understood Mrs. Dull's instructions.

Fortunately for more inexperienced cooks, Mrs. Dull's cookbook is thorough. Anyone can find the definitions of a cooking term somewhere within her pages. So, if a new bride puzzles over the direction "make a brown sauce", she can flip over to a recipe that will explain how to do that.

Mrs. Dull's cookbook is not for the faint of heart. Here is her list of the essential food groups:

1. Cereals, wheat flour, corn meal, rice, bread, and macaroni
2. Milk, eggs, cheese, meat, fish, peas, beans, nuts, and game.
3. Fats, butter, butter substitutes, drippings, cottonseed oil, olive oil, and bacon.
4. Sugar, syrups, honey, jelly, and preserves
5. Vegetables and fruits.

"Drippings?!", I can hear you exclaim.

Yes. Drippings.

When I was growing up, my mother had a special container for drippings, which she kept near the stove. It had a strainer in it, which caught the bits of bacon. The rest of the drippings fell down into a canister. It's strange to think about it now, but bacon drippings were an essential part of the Southern kitchen at one time.

And, where else but in the South would sugar, syrups, etc., be considered an essential food group -- one that was even listed ahead of veggies and fruits?

Also, it's a bit disconcerting to find among all of her dainty delicacies, entries such as "Alma's Recipe for 'Possum'" or, better yet, that old Southern favorite, "brains and eggs". (Despite the fact that my Dad's family used to serve the latter for breakfast on occasion, he has made it to the age of 87).

I'm emphasizing the things in Mrs. Dull's book that see seem quaint to our modern taste. Don't let that turn you off of this wonderful volume, however. Mrs. Dull's cookbook has many lovely recipes and a lot of great instruction that still applies today. I was just perusing her section on how to set up a kitchen and came away with a lot of ideas.

Here is one of the more old-fashioned recipes from her book:

"Mother's Wedding Cake Made in 1860
1 pound flour
1 pound sugar
Whites of 16 eggs
3/4 pound white butter
1 teaspoon soda
2 teaspoons cream of tarter"

Bake in a loaf pan in slow oven. No directions are given for mixing, but I think the directions given for the first cake were the general way of making cake then."

See what I mean about some of the recipes not being exact? When Mrs. Dull alludes to the instructions for the first cake, she is referring to her recipe for old-fashioned white pound cake. The directions for that recipe say, "Cream the butter and flour together, beat whites and sugar together until they look like icing, mix the two well and bake in slow oven (about 300 degrees until done." In the case of the wedding cake, you would naturally add the extra ingredients listed to the mixture.

I assume that the recipe for Mother's Wedding Cake really was used at her mother's wedding. 1860 would have been about right for her parents' marriage date.

Just a few of Mrs. Dull's other recipes are Esther's Salmon Salad, Mexican Salad, Virginia Spoon Bread, Cheese Straws (You knew she had to have a recipe for these, didn't you!), tea cakes, Tea Punch, Russian tea, catsup, Georgia Sweet Peach Pickle, baked chicken, fried chicken, squash souffle, Chicken Pie, roast duck, roast goose, and, of course, Brunswick stew.

After writing her cookbook, Mrs. Dull established the first Home Service Department for the Atlanta Gas Light Company. Whenever a woman bought one of those "new-fashioned" gas stoves, Mrs. Dull actually went to her home to teach her how to use it! She helped many women who had always cooked on wood-burning stoves get over their fear of using gas in their kitchen. Later on, she did the same for electric stoves. There are those who say that was a huge factor in helping the South change over to "modern" cooking equipment.

After that, Mrs. Dull conducted many cooking schools all around the South. These were attended by thousands of women. For two years, she headed the Home Economics Department at Tift College in Forsyth, Ga. At the request of the state's governor, she also made a trip to New York to introduce Georgia sweet potatoes to northern cooks. At the time, I'm sure that did much for Georgia farmers and, thus, for Georgia's economy in general.

Though Mrs. Dull wrote for the Journal, readers of the rival paper -- the Atlanta Constitution -- chose her as one of the South's ten most prominent women. (Today, these papers have combined into one.)

Mrs. Dull was apparently known both for charm and efficiency -- that combination of almost opposing traits that Southern women carry off so well. (I missed that gene somehow!)

In one of the many prefaces to her cookbook, Hal M. Stanley writes, "The charm of her personality and the sweetness of her disposition endear her to everyone with whom she comes in contact."

Paula Deen, one of today's most popular Southern cooks, lists one of her "Grandmomma's" favorite recipes on her site. She states that she thinks her grandmother learned it from Mrs. Dull, who was her one and only cooking mentor. Many other cooks and cookbooks cite her influence.

I was playing with words a bit when I called her the "Fascinating Mrs. Dull" Only Southern "foodies" would think of her in this way. But, despite her unfortunate last name, I really do think she's anything but dull!

She is an American lady who, like so many, triumphed over challenging circumstances. Instead of despairing when losses came, she took note of what she did possess -- cooking skills taught to her by her family. She made the most of this wonderful heritage. She turned her domestic talents into a career that helped many other women run their own kitchens well.

In looking back on his mother's life, her son took note of the contribution she made to the lives of other women. "...I think she would have been the most proud of having taught so many women to cook well for she always said that to be a good cook and homemaker was an essential part of making a happy home."

Enjoy!
Elizabeth

Phillis Wheatley

The founding fathers and mothers of the United States of America set in motion what became our present American government and culture. Not only that, but their American experiment has influenced other governments, as well.

We look back at these men and women with great fondness. They had notable strengths of character. Even today, they teach us by their example and the writings they left for us to read.

However, there was one area in which our esteemed founders failed to rise above their times -- and that was with regard to slavery. Though many were bothered in their consciences about this issue, others accepted the institution and the suffering that came with it as simply being part of life. And, even those who did have qualms about slavery could think of no solutions about how to end this practice, for it had become so deeply entrenched in America's economy.

George Washington, for example, became increasingly troubled by the question of slavery. He started meditating about this after he saw black soldiers in the American Revolution fight for freedom. He realized that they were as brave and valiant as their white masters were. He never went so far as to manumit his slaves during his lifetime, but he decreed in his will that his slaves should be freed upon his death. I'm no historian, but, so far, I haven't found any indication that Martha Washington shared her husband's distress in this matter. In fact, it is said that she could never be made to understand why her personal maid chose to run away to freedom. This seems to be a rare issue about which the Washingtons -- who were usually so agreeable to each other -- held somewhat differing opinions.

Considering that this mindset was so established in our Colonial period and in our early days as a country, the life of American poet, Phillis Wheatley, is remarkable. Did you know that this gifted slave woman was the first African American woman writer to be published in the U.S.?

Phillis began her life in what is now Senegal. At age 7, she was captured by African slave traders, who named her after the slave ship, Phillis, and who sold her to white slave traders. She was taken to Boston, Massachusetts, where a wealthy merchant, John Wheatley, bought her. At the time, the thirteen Colonies were still part of England, but the desire for independence was brewing.

Once in Boston, Phillis quickly learned to understand and to speak English. John converted the young girl to a belief in Christ, and Phillis became very devout. Many of her famous poems deal with themes of faith.

Phillis was too young and too frail for hard work, so she was chosen for domestic chores and to be a companion to Mrs. Wheatley. However, the Wheatleys quickly realized that Phillis had a remarkable mind. They felt a responsibility to help her develop her gifts.

So, the Wheatleys made a decision that was unheard of in their day; they allowed Phillis to stop her labors so that she could devote all of her time to study! This was during an era when most slaves were not allowed to read or write! If a slave was educated in that era, the slave was much more likely to be a man and either a household steward or a farm overseer. Seldom did anyone offer a preteen slave girl a chance at higher learning.

Yet, members of the Wheatley family schooled Phillis in such subjects as English literature, Latin, astronomy, geography, and ancient history. Plus, they fostered her growing faith and inspired her to study theology. Through the wealthy Wheatleys, Phillis probably reached a higher level of learning than even most white or free black people of her day could afford.

Phillis found an outlet for her amazing talents. She began to write beautiful poetry. In 1767, the Newport Mercury became the first paper to publish one of her poems. This poem was about two men who nearly drowned at sea and their strengthening faith in God. Later, she published the most famous of her early poems, called "On the Death of the Rev. Mr. George Whitefield, 1770". It was an eloquent elegy for a man whose work she greatly admired.

When Massachusetts newspapers published her work, she became an American celebrity. When a book of her poems appeared in England, her celebrity rose to an international scale.

Though there were so very many people who admired her talent, there were also those who refused to believe that a black woman and a slave woman actually wrote such remarkable poetry. In 1772, Phillis was called into court to prove her literary ability. A group of 17 prominent and scholarly Bostonians questioned her and concluded that she was, indeed, the author of her published poems. They wrote a document attesting to her authenticity as the author of her upcoming book -- Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral. The book first appeared in England, as Boston publishers were slow to publish the text.

All the while, the revolution kept fermenting. Did Phillis find it ironic that the word freedom was the cry on every lip in America, when her own freedom had been so cruelly snatched from her? If she did, she never expressed any bitterness over the matter. In fact, in one poem, she expresses gratitude for having been brought to a place where she could learn about Christ. Her attitude was similar to that of Joseph's, who understood that while his brothers meant to do him evil by selling him into slavery, God used that same situation to work good.

In that same poem, Phillis reminds white readers that Christ died for those of African descent, just as she did for the children of European settlers. She implores her readers to think carefully about looking down on her people, for in Christ, all men may find salvation. In a couple of her other poems, Phillis comments about the suffering associated with slavery and prejudice. In one heart-wrenching passage, she imagines the agony her mother must have felt at having her child taken from her arms.

These comments are never delivered with anger. She simply invited people to look at the day's racial dilemma more deeply. Some modern historicans have suggested that she did not dare to upset her readership with more direct comments. I imagine that there is some truth to that. However, I also like to think that her faith was so genuine that she truly held no rancor in her heart. At any rate, the majority of her poems are about faith or are about people she admired. Most do not mention the problems of slavery and prejudice at all.

In 1773, John Wheatley set Phillis free. (Some say she wasn't emancipated until Mr. Wheatley's death a few years later). In 1776, Phillis was invited to read her poetry to George Washington.

Sadly, Phillis' years of freedom were hard ones. When the country was plunged into the Revolutionary War, people quit reading Phillis' moral and religious poems in favor of more political literature. One by one, the members of the Wheatley family died. Without their loving support, her great talent was somewhat forgotten, and she was no longer invited into the parlors of upper-class intellectual society. Despite the fact that she was still young and still gifted, she became what we call in our day, a "has-been".

Phillis married a free black grocer named John Peters. Historical accounts vary a bit in the details after that point. But, we do know that John's grocery failed and that he never made a success at that or any other type of endeavor.

Though Phillis was so greatly educated, there weren't many job openings back then in which Phillis could have used her education. So, she was forced to take on jobs as a scullery maid in order to help feed the family. Whatever work she could find in that area was never enough to support them.

All three children born to Phillis and John died. The last child left this world just a few hours after Phyllis, herself, passed away. It is not clear to me after reading several accounts of her life whether Phillis died from that child's birth. It's possible that she did, or it's possible that the child had already been born at some earlier point. If the latter case is true, I would assume that both mother and child likely succumbed to the same illness. It's also probable that John had completely abandoned Phillis by the time she passed away. At any rate, one thing is certain: Phillis was only thirty-one years old at the time of her death.

There were rumors that Phillis completed a second book of poems during the time she was married to John Peters. That manuscript has never been found, and, thus, has never been published.

So, what can Phillis teach us with regard to our finishing school? She sort of takes our excuses away; doesn't she? If we find ourselves in challenging circumstances -- as she certainly did -- we can still look for opportunities to develop our talents and to share them with others.

If you are interested, you can read some of Phillis' lovely poems online.

Enjoy!
Elizabeth

Fiery Plumes at the Washingtons...

Here's a funny side note from early American history. Betsey Hamilton (wife of Alexander Hamilton) once described a memorable evening at George and Martha Washington's temporary presidential residence in New York:

"Ostrich plumes, waving high overhead, formed a part of the evening head-dress of a fashionable belle at that time. Miss McEvers...had plumes unusually high. The ceiling of the drawing room of the president's house near Franklin Square was rather low, and Miss McEvers' plumes were ignited by the flames of the chandelier Major Jackson, Washington's aide-de-camp, sprang to the rescue of the young lady and extinguished the fire by smothering it with his hand." (By Betsey Hamilton, as recorded in Founding Mothers by Cokie Roberts).

Finishing School Rule #1: If you are ever invited to dine at the White House, leave the ostrich feathers at home!

Enjoy!
Elizabeth

Martha Washington

Did you know that after the original thirteen states of the United States won independence from England, America's founding fathers and founding mothers were unsure just how to run the new government and the new society? After all, no one in modern times had tried a republican experiment on such a large scale.

Should U.S. officials take their cue from the royalty that still ran most European countries? Or, should they dress, behave, entertain, and live in some other manner that befitted the American experiment?

Our forefathers took these questions seriously. They were aware that they were setting precedents and customs for future generations of Americans. Plus, the survival of this new republic was not guaranteed. They wanted to give it the best start that they could, in the hope that it would hold its own among the more established countries of the world.

This meant crafting a government and society that other, older countries would treat with respect. Yet, at the same time, they wanted to clearly be a government and society that was of the people, by the people, and for the people. The founding fathers walked a fine line between being taken seriously by European monarchies and, yet, remaining true to their republican ideals.

Perhaps none were so affected by this dilemma as George and Martha Washington. We can guess from reading biographies of them that after the Revolutionary war, they would have loved to retire in privacy to their beloved Mt. Vernon.

Even during the Revolutionary War, George must have been homesick. He wrote to Martha, "I should enjoy more real happiness in one month with you at home than I have the most distant prospect of finding abroad, if my stay were to be seven times seven years."

But, George was called first to be commander in chief, and, then, to be the nation's first president. Both George and Martha put duty above their personal wishes.

Questions arose about what to call the new president and his wife, as well as the Vice-President and other officials. Several fancy names were put forth, but these were rejected as sounding too much like royalty. Finally, it was decided to call Mr. Washington simply "The President of the United States". Other government titles fell in line with this simple dignity.

Martha, herself, was known as Lady Washington. The term "First Lady" was not created until after her death.

Throughout it all, Martha remained devotedly by Washington's side. Martha had been a young, wealthy, beautiful widow with two living infants and two deceased infants at the time she married George. Apparently, though they both had suffered broken hearts in the past, they always remained quite content with each other.

A White House biography of her reads, "From the day Martha married George Washington in 1759, her great concern was the comfort and happiness of her husband and children. When his career led him to the battlegrounds of the Revolutionary War and finally to the Presidency, she followed him bravely. Her love of private life equaled her husband's; but, as she wrote to her friend Mercy Otis Warren, " I cannot blame him for having acted according to his ideas of duty in obeying the voice of his country." As for herself, 'I am still determined to be cheerful and happy, in whatever situation I may be; for I have also learned from experience that the greater part of our happiness or misery depends upon our dispositions, and not upon our circumstances.'

"At the President's House in temporary capitals, New York and Philadelphia, the Washingtons chose to entertain in formal style, deliberately emphasizing the new republic's wish to be accepted as the equal of the established governments of Europe. Still, Martha's warm hospitality made her guests feel welcome and put strangers at ease. She took little satisfaction in ' formal compliments and empty ceremonies' and declared that 'I am fond of only what comes from the heart.' Abigail Adams, who sat at her right during parties and receptions, praised her as "one of those unassuming characters which create Love and Esteem.'"

So, in keeping with Emma's posts last week about personal presentation, we might ask how Martha Washington worked out the issue of dress and personal presentation.

Would Mrs. Washington try to compete with the ornately attired women of European courts? Would she dress even like some of the younger, fashionable women who were connected to America's fledgling government? Or, would she dress more in keeping with what she really was -- the happy, friendly, dignified, modest, middle-aged wife of an American planter?

Abigail Adams answered this question for us in something she wrote after spending time with Mrs. Washington in New York City:

"She (Mrs. Washington) is plain in her dress, but that plainness is the best of every article. Her hair is white, her teeth beautiful, her person rather short than otherways..Her manners are modest and unassuming, dignified and feminine, not a a tincture of hauteur (arrogance) about her."

Above, I've included images of Martha from different stages in her life. We here in the U.S. are accustomed to seeing paintings both of Mrs. Washington and of George Washington from their middle and later years. But, we forget that they were, of course, once young. So, I've included a couple of portraits of Mrs. Washington as a younger woman, as well some that show her as as the plump, grandmotherly lady we all recognize.

Enjoy!
Elizabeth