Jane Mary Wood Johnston Mitchell/Michel: Notes on Family (1870+), Part III

Algernon Sidney Johnston by Harvey Mitchell (c/o Peter Johnston Binkley)

[Jane Mary Wood Johnston Mitchell/Michel: Notes on Family (1870+), Part III. My rough transcription. Additional paragraph breaks inserted for easier reading.
 
Many thanks to William Myers, Mary Davy, Sally Young and Sue Davis for their ongoing research collaboration; specifically to William for providing scans of the original documents, and in turn many thanks to Peter Johnston Binckley and Patricia D'Arcy "Trish" Binckley (1951-2007), at the source.]

[Pages 15-18 missing or unscanned from originals. This picks up at page 19, in mid-sentence.]

. . . loved with unceasing devotion. He it was to whom I was indebted for most of the mental culture that I possess – he took infinite pains to mould [mold] my mind, to lead me to seek knowledge, & to cultivate in me a pure taste, a high appreciation of the beautiful. He was a fine linguist, & taught me himself French, Spanish, & Italian; besides completing my course of instruction in Latin. 

He never had a child, & claimed me, after I lost my mother, as his own. We passed many years together, as well after my marriage as before it, and our intercourse was that of bosom friends. None of my family appreciated me as highly, or loved me as well as he did.  

In return, I could not fail to love & admire him, and our being divided (though only, I am sure, outwardly) is a sorrow that will end only with life.

He and Sydney, the next brother, removed to Columbia, So. Ca. about a year after Mother died. Our beloved kinsman, Wm. C. Preston, resided in that City, & by his persuasion my brothers were induced to seek a home there. They first engaged in book=selling: (both had been brought up to mercantile business) but, after a few years, Edward became a tutor in South Carolina College & Sydney became editor of a paper.

I spent some of the pleasantest days of my youth with them in Columbia, at that time a delightful place.

Algernon Sydney, the sixth son, was remarkable in childhood for his uncommon beauty, and his gentle, winning ways – he would spend whole days drawing pictures in the sand, or sitting quiet by Mother’s side. He was devoted to reading – never to severe studies but to poetry, words of imagination, and those pertaining to art. His nature was highly political. Yet he learned to be extremely practical, and was the best man of business in the family. 

Though generally sedate in demeanor, he had a vein of drollery & exquisite humor which made him a most amusing companion. No man ever had more real, attached friends – for no man ever had a warmer, nobler heart, or more tender sympathies. With a disposition singularly fitted for domestic happiness, he was so unfortunate as never to make for himself family ties. Love was a necessity of his nature – his large affections required an object. He had several attachments, three engagements.

The first was broken by the faithlessness of the girl, who was induced to forsake Sydney, after an engagement of two years’ duration, for an inferior man, whose worldly prospects appeared more inviting. His second love affair was terminated by the interference of the young lady’s parents, who chose a richer suitor for their daughter. The last was the great, the absorbing passion of a man in middle life, and endured as long as he lived. Its object was a most . . . sweet & lovely woman. Sue Smyth, a distant relation, but most intimate friend of mine. She had the purity, the simplicity of a child, with an excellent mind and good education.

A more unselfish being I never knew. From the time she was just grown, she devoted herself to the good of others: working assiduously as a teacher to aid in supporting her younger brother & sisters. With a faultless figure, & a charming face, manners full of graceful frankness & innocent vivacity, Sue was a most lovable woman, & Sydney, becoming enamored at first sight, loved her with a fond passion to the end of his days. She died about the time they were to have been married, & Sydney never got over the loss.

I remember now a passage in one of the last letters he wrote me in which he quietly, but so touchingly spoke of his feelings. “Time may change my feelings – but now, I would not give the little handful of dust that was her heart, for all the world contains.”

Time did not change him – but he sought to bring his spirit into harmony with how to become, like her, a Christian: & God was merciful, & gave to that living heart Himself for an object.

Sydney died suddenly, about eight years after Sue. In token of their warm affection, his kinsmen, William & John Preston erected a monument over his remains in the Cemetery of the Episcopal Church in Columbia. He lies beside our youngest brother, Benjamin, who died about twenty years before.

[Jane Mary Wood Johnston Mitchell/Michel (1811-1892).
Edward William Johnston (1799-1867).
Harvey Mitchell/Michel (1799-1866).
Algernon Sidney "Syd" Johnston (1801-1852).

One of the early engagements was, apparently, to either Sarah Radford Preston (1806-1848) or Sarah "Sally" Buchanan Preston (1802-1879). The former married Henry Morton Bowyer (1802-1893) in 1827; the latter married John Buchanan Floyd (1806-1863) in 1830. 

Sue Smyth (d. circa 1844). Probably related to Alexander Smyth (1765-1830) and Nancy Binkley Smyth (circa 1770-1832), and probably the Susan Smyth mentioned in an 1839 letter written by Edward William Johnston, when she was a student departing from his school in Virginia. 
William Campbell Preston (1794-1860). 
John Preston = John Smith Preston (1809-1881).
Benjamin Franklin Johnston (1808-1834).]