Lizzie Coulter Goes South, Part II

Last month, I reported in this blog for May 8 on the journey that Lizzie Coulter and Mary Adee took in 1868 to Virginia, where they were to teach freed black men and women. The journey, including a stay of almost a week in Boydton, Virginia, took a bit over two weeks.

On April 21, Lizzie traveled to her final destination, Clarksville. She arrived in muddy conditions and the next morning began her school with twenty-two pupils. She noted that “some of them are quite mischievous the same as other children.” Lizzie found Clarksville more pleasant than Boydton. She noted that she had “a good boarding place at the hotel.”

By May, she had “sixty eight day scholars and twenty four night scholars.” Some of her students were able to read while others were still learning the alphabet. “The greater part of them learn very fast,” she noted. The month of May went by pleasantly for most part. She started writing “letters for the colored people” and was receiving much welcomed letters from home. The weather was pleasant, noting in her diary that she was “not suffering with heat any yet.” She went on to record that she was “quite contented and happy although I am slandered and despised because I teach the colored people.” May 19 was not such a good day for Lizzie. She came home from school very tired, noting that “some of my scholars behaved very badly today. I punished one of my large scholars for pinching another.” Coulter went on to say that “I almost feel discouraged yet I must remember that they have not had the privileges that the whites enjoy at the north.” The rest of the month seemed to go better. One day she noted that “strawberries and cherries are ripe and had some new potatoes for dinner….”  She found time to make a trip to Boydton to visit her friend (probably Mary Adee).

The May 8, 2015 entry in this blog told the story of Lizzie Coulter's trip south in the spring of 1868 to become a teacher for the Freedman's Bureau in southern Virginia. She spent a few days in Boydton, Virginia before finally reaching her final destination on April 21, Clarksville.

By May, she had “sixty eight day scholars and twenty four night scholars.” Some of her students were able to read while others were still learning the alphabet. “The greater part of them learn very fast,” she noted. The month of May went by pleasantly for most part. She started writing “letters for the colored people” and was receiving welcomed letters from home. The weather was pleasant, noting in her diary that she was “not suffering with heat any yet.” She went on to record that she was “quite contented and happy although I am slandered and despised because I teach the colored people.” May 19 was not such a good day for Lizzie. She came home from school very tired, noting that “some of my scholars behaved very badly today. I punished one of my large scholars for pinching another.” Coulter went on to say that “I almost feel discouraged yet I must remember that they have not had the privileges that the whites enjoy at the north.” The rest of the month seemed to go better. One day she noted that “strawberries and cherries are ripe and had some new potatoes for dinner….”  She found time to make a trip to Boydton to visit her friend (probably Mary Adee).

The weather began to get to Lizzie in June. She started to lose her voice and found that she could not teach as many hours as she had been. Reducing her hours some did seem to help. She continued to notice the various fruits and vegetables that were available: “Had some pine apples, mulberries, huckleberries and cucumbers to day and yesterday had peas, plum and raspberries.” Lizzie soldiered on through July and the weather grew hotter and more humid. In early July, she recorded that “the thermometer stood at 103 degrees on Wednesday and on Thursday 105 degrees.” Things cooled off a bit by the end of July, helped by some rain. She continued to have a large number of students, numbering in the 70s. For the most part, she seemed to do well with her students, but did record that one day “one of my scholars had a fit in school.”

August was such a busy one that Mary Adee joined her to help her in her “laborious work,” but by mid-month, Lizzie's health worsened. On August 15, she noted that she “had a bad cold.” She had hoarseness, a sore throat and a cough. “I fear I will have to return home soon if my cold does not get better.” Her fears were realized that day when she met with a doctor about whether or not she could stay. The doctor advised her not to teach any longer. “I therefore concluded to return home.” She closed her school on the 20th and “parted with my Sabbath school on the 23rd.” Her scholars were very sorry to see her leave – “many tears were shed at parting…”

Coulter left Clarksville on August 24 and her trip home was essentially a reverse of her trip down in April. She was joined in Boydton by Mary Adee and “two colored girls one is for Mr. Graham and the other is going near Bloomville.” They traveled to Richmond and on to Aquia Creek, sailing on the Vanderbilt back up the Potamac. She took a bath on board and “slept well until morning…” when she went out on the deck. She traveled on to Washington and Baltimore.

Unfortunately, her travel diary ends on August 28, before she completed her journey home. She received a number of letters from her scholars in Clarksville after returning to Bovina (these have been transcribed and are also at the Delaware County Historical Association). They wrote about how they missed her and what has been going on since her departure from Clarksville. She also had several letters from an Ann Smith, who appears to have stepped in to carry on Coulter’s educational efforts. Some of the letters also congratulated her on a life changing event that took place barely two months after her return – her marriage. On October 26, 1868, Lizzie married Henry Scott Murray in Bovina. They would be married for 38 years until Henry’s death in 1905. Lizzie would have three sons but only one, David Hamilton Murray, would survive her at her death in July 1907. Elizabeth and Henry spent much of their time living in Andes, but both are buried in Bovina.

Mary Adee, who returned with Coulter, also did not return south. She was married by 1870 to Charles Martin (1824-1908). She had several children but died at the age of 38 in 1884 and is buried in Oneonta.

Another player in this whole story was the Freedmen’s Bureau agent, George W. Graham. His story needs considerably more research concerning his time in southern Virginia (the records of the office he ran in southern Virginia are at the National Archives). He ended up serving for a couple of years as a Virginia State Senator and appears to have been essentially a carpetbagger. Stay tuned for this story.

Lizzie Coulter Goes South, Part I

On a snowy early April morning in 1868, two young women from Bovina, Elizabeth A. Coulter and Mary Adee left from Delhi for Boydton, Virginia, near Roanoke. Lizzie and Mary were not traveling on any kind of social visit but were sent by the Missionary Society of the Bovina U.P. Church to teach “Freedmen of the South.” The Andes Recorder for March 17, 1868, reported on the society’s plan to help educate freed black men and women. The paper noted that “the Freedmen are said to be extremely anxious to have teachers sent them, agreeing to pay their board while there, which in their reduced circumstances must be a heavy task.” The trip was arranged through a Bovina native and Civil War veteran, George W. Graham, an agent of the Freedmen’s Bureau, stationed in Boydton. The Recorder noted that “the society pays them $20 per month, yet the remuneration is considered no equivalent for the trials they may have to encounter among strangers, who are not supposed to be particularly partial to northern teachers coming among them.”

Mary H. Adee was the daughter of Stephen B. Adee and Elizabeth Ludington, born in 1846. Elizabeth Coulter, more commonly known as Lizzie, was the daughter of David Coulter and Margaret Hamilton. She was born in Bovina in September 1839. We know quite a bit about Lizzie’s and Mary’s trip to Virginia and Lizzie’s time there because she kept a diary, now at the Delaware County Historical Association.

Accompanied by Bovina pastor J.B. Lee and their friend Minnie Graham from Delhi, they left Delhi at 6 am on Monday, April 6, getting to Hancock around 2 pm, “too late for the Express train.” When they left Hancock at 6 pm, Minnie took a different route via New York City, likely to visit friends, with plans to meet up with Lizzie and Mary in Baltimore. Lizzie, Mary and Reverend Lee got as far as Great Bend two hours after leaving Hancock and stayed the night. They left Great Bend the next morning and got to Scranton at 10, where they had to spend “a very stormy disagreeable day” waiting to take the next stage of their journey. Leaving Scranton at 5, they arrived in Northumberland at 10, passing “through a tunnel….where it was as dark as midnight.” Departing Northumberland at 2 am on April 8, they got to Harrisburg about daylight. Lizzie noted that they crossed a bridge nearly a mile in length. Lee left them at Harrisburg and they continued on to Baltimore, arriving at 10 am.

In Baltimore, they were taken to the home of Mr. and Mrs. Burns (“found Mrs. Burns a very kind friendly woman”) where they found Minnie waiting for them. They had breakfast and dinner with them and took a train for Washington D.C. at 3 pm, arriving there around 6. From the station, they took a street car for Aquia Creek, where they took a steamer on the Potomac. Lizzie noted that they “had a pleasant sail a beautiful moonlighted evening.” From there, they went to Richmond, arriving around 5 am on the morning of April 9. They went to a hotel there for a couple of hours, then continued south, taking “the Richmond and Danville train for Roanoke.” They arrived in Roanoke at 2 pm on Thursday (“it is only a station consisting of four or five houses”).

They were not quite finished yet. They had another thirty miles to go to get to Boydton. “Our conveyance was an open wagon drawn by two mules without any back to our seats.” Lizzie and Mary only traveled about 11 miles that day, staying at what she described as “a sort of hotel” that was kept “by a bachelor and a number of colored people.” Departing at 7 the next morning, April 10, they finally reached Boydton at noon.

Lizzie was frankly unimpressed with Boydton, noting that “it is not a very pleasant place.” Here they met up with Mr. Graham, the Freedmen’s Bureau agent. She spent about 10 days in Boydton, getting adjusted to things, such as how much further ahead the vegetation was in Southern Virginia than back at home. Lizzie and Mary also had to adjust to being gazed at in “utter amazement [by] both whites and colored.” She noted in her diary that her “health is excellent for which I trust I am thankful.” Unfortunately, as the summer progressed, this would no longer true. In part two of this story, I will report on Lizzie's trials and tribulations as a teacher in Virginia.