Jane Johnston Mitchell/Michel to John Milton Binckley, September 9, 1870

[Jane Mary Wood Johnston Mitchell/Michel at Norfolk, Virginia, John M. Binckley, Esq., at Columbus, Ohio, September 9, 1870. My rough transcription. 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 a scan of the original document (as well as a scan of the above photograph), and in turn many thanks to Peter Johnston Binckley and Patricia D'Arcy "Trish" Binckley (1951-2007), at the source.]

                                                             Norfolk, 9th Sept. 7 a.m.

My dear son,

Give praise to God! Your Mary is safely through her pain & peril, with a great double-fisted boy in her arms. He was born about two hours ago, after giving her a more tedious & painful time than usual, owing to his uncommon size. He is just Harvey over again, perhaps a pound or so larger.

She was sick about 10 hours -- very intense suffering for two.

The baby is perfect, & has the lungs of a Stentor.

Mary is all right, & has every prospect of doing well. Dr. Selden is sick, so we had to call in Dr. Moore, who gives great satisfaction.

We hear from Mrs. Kidwell that you are at Columbus -- so I direct to that place.

With love & congratulations from Mary & children accept the sincere affection of your

                                                        Mother Michel 

[Jane Mary Wood Johnston Mitchell/Michel (1811-1892).

John Milton Binckley (circa 1831-1878).

Mary Louisa/Louise Mitchell/Michel Binckley (1838-1930). 

Boy = George Sydney Binckley (1870-1941). 

Harvey = Harvey Mitchell Binckley (1864-1928).]

Nella Fontaine Binckley to John Milton Binckley, December 1, 1870

[Nellie (Nella Fontaine) Binckley (ten years old) at Norfolk, Virginia, to John Milton Binckley at [Colorado?], December 1, 1870. 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 a scan of the original document, and in turn many thanks to Peter Binckley and Patricia D'Arcy "Trish" Binckley (1951-2007), at the source.]

                                                  Norfolk. December 1st 1870
Dear Papa,

I am just as busy as I can be making Christmas gifts. I am making a penwiper for Sue, and I've made one for Aunt Charlotte, and I am making a mat for an old colored woman, Aunt Jane Butt they call her, but mama calls her Mammy. Mammy's niece was burnt up not long ago, and left a little tiny baby for Mammy to [take] care of. Was'nt [wasn't] it dreadful to be burnt up? I think so.

I was hurt right bad with hot water and that is almost as bad as being burnt? [O]nly I was'nt [wasn't] killed. 

Mama has named the baby George after Uncle George, and I know you'll like that better than Julius. 

I am dreadfully sorry Uncle George is sick, and I hope he'll get well soon.

I'd tell you what Grandma's Christmas gift is but I'm afraid Grandma might read this letter before Christmas and then she'd know. 

There is the funniest old gentleman boarding here, he can't speak more than three words of English, and he has taken a great fancy to Harvey and tries so hard to talk to him (Harvey) making such funny mistakes. The old gentleman's name is Mr. Snykers, he and his wife butter their bread with red peppers . . . just to think of buttering your bread with those red and green peppers. Mamma says they must have throats of iron and I think so too. 

They have a whole shaggy dog, that they wont [won't] let have any salt meat, for they say it makes its hair come out, and it (the dog) has his hair washed with soap and water, and combed, and curled, every morning, by the old Mrs. Snykers, is'nt [isn't] that queer?

I am going to give you a gift on Christmas that I know you'll like. I'm sure you will, its [it's] something splendid, but I'm not going to tell you, for you'll see. 

I'm going to give Tommy Butts a little gilt watch chain and Sam[?] is going to buy a little toy watch for two[?] cents to put on it.

I went to see a man named Wyman play tricks with Mr. and Mrs. Blanford and Miss Harriet Howard, and they gave presents to every body. I got a little gilt watch chain and I didn't [it] want so I'm to give it to Tommy on Christmas. Mr. Blanford got a set of black jewelry but he gave it to Mrs. Blanford for a little watch-chain like mine that she got. Miss Harriet got a set of jewelry too. I'll write about the tricks Wyman played, in my next letter, for I hav'nt [haven't] room here. 

                                               Your Affectionate Daughter, Nellie
                                  Please write to me soon

[Ellen/Nellie/Nella Fontaine Binckley (September 1, 1860-April 27, 1951).
John Milton Binckley (circa 1831-1878).
Sue = Sue Henry Mitchell/Michel Taliaferro (1845-1940).
Aunt Charlotte =  Aunt Charlotte = Charlotte Elizabeth Griffin Mitchell/Michel (1829-1921).
Aunt Jane Butt = there is a Jane Butt (born circa 1818, age 52) listed in the 1870 federal census, living in the 4th Ward.
Mama = Mary Louisa/Louise Mitchell/Michel Binckley (1838-1930).
Baby George = George Sydney Binckley (born September 9, 1870-1941).
Uncle George = George Michael Binckley (1828-1885).
Grandma = Jane Mary Wood Johnston Mitchell/Michel (1811-1892).
Harvey = Harvey Mitchell Binckley (1864-1928). 
Mr. and Mrs. Snykers = not sure who they are.
Tommy Butts = there are two Thomas Butts listed in the 1870 federal census, living in the 1st Ward].
Wyman = not sure who this is. 
Mr. and Mrs. Balnford = not sire who they are. 
Miss Harriet ]= not sure who this is.]
                                

Nella Fontaine Binckley: "Odds and Ends from an Artist's Life," Chapter III, Part 1

Union Block, 1870, Mt. Pleasant, Iowa (Wiki Commons)

[Nella Fontaine Binckley, "Odds and Ends from an Artist's Life," Chapter III, part 1. From a transcription annotated by Patricia D'Arcy Binckley of typewritten original, February 25, 2005. Original "written some time after 1941 by Nellie F. Binckley, 1860-1950 or 51." Notes in brackets are mine, unless followed by the initials "P.D.B." Occasionally, 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 a scan of the original document, and in turn many thanks to Peter Binckley and Patricia D'Arcy "Trish" Binckley (1951-2007), at the source.]

When I was eight years old, we went to Norfolk. Lovely seagirt Norfolk, with its magnolia-lined streets! In the Spring the great white blossoms filled the air with their intoxicating fragrance. They are very sensitive flowers, and will not brook a touch. When friends send magnolias to one another, there is but one way to assure their arriving unspoiled. The big glossy dark green leaves with their brown undersides are gathered completely around the blossom, completely covering it, and tied with a ribbon. It doesn't mind its own leaves, but a touch from anything else makes a brown mark on the creamy whiteness of its petals.

We lived on Freemason Street, not very far from the sea wall at the end of the street. We children used to get down from the sea wall to the beach below and play there. We loved it. I don't seem to [remember] much about our life there. One thing I've always remembered. A neighbor, Miss Krutsch, [used] to play an exquisite thing on her piano. She was a musician. I was too young to think to ask her its name. Years after, I heard it played, and found it was a Mazurka by Chopin. 

The other thing that I remember was something that happened when we moved into a different house. Grandmother was with us at that time. She had had a first floor room before, but in the new house she was on the second floor at the back. She never cared for cats[,] and in the afternoon of the day we moved in, when the maid had got the beds made up in the bedrooms, Grandmother went to her room and to her disgust, saw a cat curled up in the middle of her bed. Forgetting that she was now upstairs, she caught up the cat and pitched it out of the open window. Then she remembered and was overwhelmed with horror and remorse. She crawled downstairs to giv orders for the mangled remains to be removed. Sitting placidly at the back door was the cat, putting her fur in order, all her nine lives evidently unimpaired.

Then later, [about 1872 -- M.J.B.] we went to the Northwest to live in Mount Pleasant, Iowa. It was all very different there. In the South, everyone had servants, but in Iowa there were none. All the ladies did their own work. I remember Mother saying how wonderful those Northwestern women were. There was a co-educational University there [Iowa Wesleyan University] and boys and girls came in from the country to study. The girls did all the cleaning, cooking, mending, washing and ironing for themselves and their brothers, and kept up with their studies besides. Some were so poor that brothers and sisters had to live in the same room, with a curtain across. The professor of Mathematics at the University was a young woman, but her chief claim to distinction in the town seemed to be the fact that she got her family wash out on the line on Mondays earlier than anybody else.

Mia and I had been very sorry to part, but we promised to write to each other. The Suverkrops went abroad a year or two after, and never came back to the United States. But Mia and I kept up our correspondence for many years, till she died in England in November, 1939. In her last letter she said, "Well, we're at war." Much as I grieved for the loss of a lifelong friend, I was thankful she was spared the horrors that followed. She had a house in London and a charming cottage in Herefordshire, on the river Wye. She sent me photographs of it. The cottage had been brought fro Norway. She died there. She had written me that the authorities would not allow her to return to her London house, on account of the war.

In the Northwest, Mother found it very difficult to get a ham she liked -- they were all so big and fat and porky. In Virginia, life is incomplete without a ham in the house. It's a standby. No Virginian housewife is every without one. But the hams there are always small and lean and thoroughly cured, often in the family's own smokehouse. It was awfully cold and snowy in Iowa, so later we went to Chicago.

But it was just as cold there. We didn't like Chicago. A pall of smoke hung over the city practically all the time. And a more than occasional hideous whiff from the Stockyards, when the wind happened to serve.

So Father rented a furnished house in the suburbs owned by the artist cousin who had made the sketch of The Cottage long before, and who lived in Chicago. His studio was the first one I had ever seen and I was fascinated. 

In our suburb, the streets were laid out with wooden sidewalks, but it was sparsely built up as yet -- only about one house to a block. It was right on the prairie, so the wind had a free sweep. (The wind was always blowing.)  And the mercury habitually sank down to the bottom of the thermometer. 

I remember Father and my two brothers went rabbit hunting one day when it was 32 degrees below zero. One evening I was sent out to mail some letters in the letter box at the corner. I put on a heavy cape with a hood, but did not bother to put on my mittens. The wiond blew my cape open and I put out my hand and pulled it back around me. When I got home I found blisters on my fingers as if I had touched a hot stove.  

[Ellen/Nellie/Nella Fontaine Binckley (September 1, 1860-April 27, 1951). Family names and dates were whimsically tweaked by their owners during their lifetime, adding mystery and sometimes causing confusion. For Binckley's "Artist's Life," I'm opting for the full artist's signature name, Nella Fontaine Binckley. 

Grandmother = Jane Johnston Mitchell/Michel (1811-1892).
Mother = Mary Louisa/Louise Mitchell/Michel Binckley (1838-1930).
Father = John Milton Binckley (circa 1831-1878).
Two brothers = Harvey Mitchell Binckley (1864-1928) and George Sydney Binckley (1870-1941). 

Euphemia/Mia Alberta Suverkrop (circa 1859-1939). Astonishingly, see "The Suverkrop Letters, 1842-1887," link here.

See also The London Gazette, page 629 (January 30, 1940): EUPHEMIA ALBERTA SUVERKROP, Deceased. Pursuant to the Trustee Act, 1925. ALL persons having claims against the estate of Euphemia Alberta Suverkrop late of "Braeside" Whitchurch [Symonds Yat, Ross] in the county of Hereford, and of 89, Sunderland Road, Forest Hill in the county of London, Spinster, who died on the 22nd day of October 1939 and whose Will was proved in the Principal Probate Registry on the 15th day of January 1940 by National Provincial Bank Limited, the executors named therein, are required to send written particulars of their claims to us, the undersigned, on or before the 31st day of March 1940, after which date the executors will distribute the assets of the deceased among the persons entitled thereto, having regard only to the claims of which the executors shall then have had notice —Dated this 26th day of January, 1940. STURTON and STURTON, 74, Great Tower Street, London, E.G. 3, Solicitors for the (004) Executors. Link here.]

From Slavery to Freedom: Peter Hope, Louisa Saunders and Frank Trigg, Jr.

Frank Trigg, Jr., Legacy Museum, Lynchburg, Virginia

In a letter from Mary Louisa Mitchell/Michel Binckley (1838-1930) at Abingdon, Virginia, to John Milton Binckley (1821-1878) at Washington City, dated August 8, 1869, Mary Louisia mentions "on the place an old negro of 94 years old. Quite active, stately and old fashioned" who "refused to come out and see" the solar eclipse of August 7, 1869. (Link to letter here) 

In the 1870 Census, as part of the Robert William Hughes (1821-1901) estate -- "the place" referred to in Mary Louisa's letter -- that included some of the former Peter Johnston, Jr. (1763-1831) and Charles Clement Johnston (1795-1832) (and Eliza Madison Preston Johnston, 1803-1828) family Panecillo grounds, Eliza Mary Johnston Hughes (1825-1909) and her children are listed, and in addition, there are three people classified as "mulatto" living there, too:

Peter Hope (born 1776) -- hence, 94 years old, exactly the same age mentioned in Mary Louisa's letter. If only we could interview him: born the same year as the Declaration of Independence and still alive after the end of slavery in the USA! Who were his parents?  How closely is he related to other family members? When did he die? Where is he buried?

Louisa Saunders (born circa 1852) -- there's a married Louisa Saunders living in Lynchburg, Virginia, in 1880. Same questions for her as for Peter Hope. 

Frank Trigg (born circa 1850). Here we can say much more. Frank Trigg, Jr. (1850-1933), was the son of Frank Trigg and Sarah Ann Trigg, who were also classified as mulatto. He married Ellen Preston Taylor (1858-1936) in 1880. The thing to look for now are his recollections of growing up, memoirs or other related documentation. 

Photo by Bernard Fisher, May 26, 2014

"Frank Trigg was a leading black educator in Virginia. He was born into slavery in Richmond while his parents were personal servants of Virginia Governor John B. Floyd. After the Civil War he attended Hampton Institute, and began teaching in Abingdon before moving to Lynchburg in 1880. He was a teacher and principal here for 22 years and became the first black supervisor of Lynchburg's black public schools. He was co-founder of the Virginia Teachers' Association, and later was president of colleges in Virginia, Maryland and North Carolina. In 1926 he retired to Lynchburg and resided here. He is buried in Old City Cemetery." Additional details from the Legacy Museum in Lynchburg: "Born a slave in Richmond, Frank Trigg received an education because he lost his arm in a farming accident and could no longer do farm work." Source: here.

Note: Eliza Mary Johnston Hughes (1825-1909) was taken under the wings, for a time, of John Buchanan Floyd (1806-1863) and Sarah "Sally" Buchanan Preston Floyd (1802-1879). The "personal servants" of the Floyds seem to have been "bequeathed" in some way, formally, or informally, to Eliza, probably after the death of John. There may be legal documentation. Both Eliza and Sally Floyd were living in Abingdon in 1869 and socialized together, as evidenced in the letter from Mary Louisa Mitchell/Michel Binckley at Abingdon, Virginia, to John Milton Binckley at Washington City, dated August 8, 1869, mentioned at the beginning of this post.

Much more to look for. 

Original manuscript of the Binckley letter is in the John Milton Binckley Papers, 1816-1943. Library of Congress Manuscript Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA. This is my rough transcription. 

Many thanks to William Myers for sending scanned copies of the documents from the Binckley papers, and also to Mary Davy and Sally Young for their assistance.